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Hume's Theory of Knowledge

Hume analyzed the powers and capacities of the human understanding and concluded it was ill-suited for abstract questions. According to Hume, all of our perceptions come from either impressions (sensations) or ideas, which are weaker copies of impressions. Ideas are associated through resemblance, contiguity in time/space, or cause and effect. Hume found causality to be the most important element in knowledge, but argued we cannot observe a necessary connection between causes and effects - rather, causality is a mental habit formed from repeated experiences, not a quality in objects themselves. For Hume, thinking was just a type of sensation limited to our direct experiences.

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Winston Quilaton
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151 views2 pages

Hume's Theory of Knowledge

Hume analyzed the powers and capacities of the human understanding and concluded it was ill-suited for abstract questions. According to Hume, all of our perceptions come from either impressions (sensations) or ideas, which are weaker copies of impressions. Ideas are associated through resemblance, contiguity in time/space, or cause and effect. Hume found causality to be the most important element in knowledge, but argued we cannot observe a necessary connection between causes and effects - rather, causality is a mental habit formed from repeated experiences, not a quality in objects themselves. For Hume, thinking was just a type of sensation limited to our direct experiences.

Uploaded by

Winston Quilaton
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© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Winston C.

Quilaton
Emmanuel Servants of the Holy Trinity (ESHT)
2nd Year Philosophy
Epistemology
Dr. Mark Edwin T. Aspra

Hume's Theory of Knowledge

1. What is the only way to solve the problem of disagreements and speculations regarding
“abstruse questions"?
Hume claims that the best way to resolve disputes and speculations on "abstruse questions" is to
"enquire seriously into the essence of human understanding, and show from an exact analysis of
its powers and capacity, that it is by no means fitted for such remote and abstruse subjects."

Contents of the Mind


2. What are the forms of perceptions of the mind?
The mind's perceptions can be classified into two parts, according to Hume: impressions and
ideas. The overall substance of the mind is made up of impressions and ideas. An impression (a
sense or feeling) is the original form of thought, and an idea is just a duplication of an
impression. The only distinction between an impression and an idea is the degree to which they
are vivid.
3. Why is impression so important such that “without impressions there can be no ideas”?
Hume contends that there can be no ideas without impressions. Since, if an idea is merely a
duplication of an impression, it follows that there is always a subsequent impression for any idea.

Association of Ideas
4. What are the three qualities in ideas that are associated with each other?
For Hume, if such qualities exist in ideas, these ideas are associated with one another. There are
three of these qualities: resemblance, contiguity of time or place, and cause and effect. Hume
believed that these qualities could explain the relations of both ideas and provided examples as to
how they work: "A picture naturally leads our thoughts to the original [resemblance]: the
mention of one apartment in the building naturally introduces an enquiry... concerning the others
[contiguity], and if we think of a wound, we can scarcely forebear reflecting on the pain which
follows it [cause and effect].'
5. What is the central element in knowledge?
Hume found the concept of cause and effect to be the most element in knowledge. He asserted
that the causal principle is the basis upon which the truth of all knowledge is based. There can be
no guarantee of knowledge if the causal theory is inaccurate.

Causality
6. What is Hume's most original and influential ideas?
The problem of causality is central to Hume's most original and influential ideas and neither
Locke nor Berkeley questioned the fundamental principle of causality.
7. What impression gives us the idea of causality?
His response is that there is no impression that refers to this idea.
8. How does the idea of causality arise in the mind?
According to Hume, the concept of causality must emerge in the mind when we encounter such
relationships between objects.
9. When we speak of cause and effect, we mean to say that A causes B, but, what kind of a
relation does this show between A and B?
Experience teaches us two relationships: (1) contiguity, in which A and B are always close
together, and (2) priority in time, in which A, the "cause," always comes before B, the "effect."
There is also another relationship that the idea of causality implies to common sense, namely that
there is a "necessary connection" between A and B. However, neither contiguity nor priority
imply a "necessary" relationship between objects.
10. Is causality a quality in the objects we observe?
No. Causality is a mental habit of association" created by the repetition of instances of A and B
instead of a quality in the objects we experience.
11. What is thinking or reasoning?
Finally, Hume described thinking or reasoning as "a species of sensation," and moreover, our
thinking cannot reach further than our direct experiences.

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