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"David Hume." The Basic of Philosophy, Luke Mastin, 2008, www.philosophybasics.com/philosophers_hume.html. Accessed 25 Jan. 2017.

"David Hume." Philosophy Pages, Garth Kemerling, 23 Nov. 2011, www.philosophypages.com/ph/hume.htm#top. Accessed 25 Jan. 2017.

"David Hume (1711-1776)." Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy, James Fieser, www.iep.utm.edu/hume/. Accessed 25 Jan. 2017.

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I do not believe this because I am a skeptic.

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David Hume is most known for skepticism and refusal of theism. His way of thinking caused disagreement, but is also why he is remembered. Hume is also known for being an empiricist. In an attempt to develop the consequences of John Locke's empiricism, Hume applied the scientific methods of observation to a human nature study.

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A Spectrum of Belief

Meet Gullible Gertrude. When Gertrude uses social media, she shares just about any wild claim she sees online, like information about a new wonder drug that will supposedly make you lose 20 pounds in 10 days. She also believes just about anything someone tells her, even when there is no evidence that it is true.

Now meet Skeptic Steve. Steve is at the opposite end of the spectrum from Gertrude. He doesn't believe anything he reads, always questioning its source no matter how well respected it is. He's also such an extreme skeptic that he doubts that any human being even has the ability to reason within them. He thinks we can't ever know anything with certainty about the world around us enough to make any judgments or take any action with confidence.

This lesson takes a look at how Scottish philosopher David Hume would look at the approach of these two characters when he was writing about skepticism in the 1700s. Skepticism, broadly defined, is the argument that we cannot know anything about the world with certainty.

Impressions vs. Ideas

First, let's consider how Hume understood perception. He argues that experiences or impressions we have from our senses are vivid, while the ideas and memories we form from them are not. So when you have an object in front of you, like a grapefruit, you experience a sensation of the grapefruit through seeing it, feeling it, smelling it, and tasting it that is different from what you experience when you think about a grapefruit. Your mental thought of a grapefruit is related to the actual experience of interacting with one in person, but it's much less vivid and far less reliable.

Gertrude might say that what she thinks of as a grapefruit in her mind is basically the same as the grapefruit itself, like an exact copy. Steve, on the other hand, agrees with Hume and says that our thoughts and beliefs about grapefruits are different than an actual grapefruit.

In fact, Steve is convinced that even if he has enjoyed a certain variety of grapefruit a hundred times in the past, he has no way at all of knowing for certain that he would enjoy it in the future.

You might wonder: What is Steve's problem? Why can't he use common sense to believe that if you liked a certain type of fruit in the past, that you'll enjoy it in the future? Isn't that simply obvious?

Skepticism and the Senses

Here's where Hume can help again. He would say that Skeptic Steve is onto something to a certain degree. Events we see as cause and effect -- like I ate a grapefruit and I felt satisfaction -- are not so firmly tied together as we think they are. So many elements of our life seem to be connected by one thing happening, followed by another as cause and effect. Yet there is no real firm justification for this belief that the two are connected, he says.

Remember: Our ideas about anything, including grapefruits, are far less vivid than the experience itself, according to Hume. We may confuse the actual experience with our memory of it. Yet they are not the same thing. This puts us at risk of thinking that what we have come to believe over time is the truth about something, even when it's not certain. What we see as cause and effect relationship are really events that have a strong probability of occurring in conjunction with one another, based on our experience.

For instance, if someone asks you if you think the sun will rise tomorrow, you might feel confident saying you are 100% sure that this will happen. You've seen the sun rise day in and day out for your entire life, so isn't it safe to say that the sun will definitely rise?

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david hume & skepticism - video & lesson transcript | study.com

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David Hume & Skepticism - Video & Lesson Transcript | Study.com

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Meet Gullible Gertrude. When Gertrude uses social media, she shares just about any wild claim she sees online, like information about a new wonder drug that will supposedly make you lose 20 pounds in 10 days. She also believes just about anything someone tells her, even when there is no evidence that it is true.

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Irish Wedding Bagpipes Bagpiper Hire Ireland

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Including some of Scotland's finest music.

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At the age of 26, David Hume completed his masterpiece, which was called "A Treatise of Human Nature." This, however, did not do well and was considered a disappointment.
Hume completed his next book, "Essay, Moral, and Political." in 1741-1742. The newer book seemed to have more success than the older one. Finally, Hume completed a book he was happy with in 1748. The book was called, "An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding."
Even though this book was a popular summary of David's empiricism, he was charged with heresy.

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Hume possessed several famous positions. For example, he defended the position of skepticism. "Human reason is inherently contradictory" ("David Hume [1711-1776])". Also, David stated that, "We cannot derive ought from his" ("David Hume [1711-1776]). This means that statements of moral obligation cannot be arrived at by reasoning from statements of fact.

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David Hume was born on the 26th of April, 1711 in a tenement on the Lawn market in Edinburgh, Scotland. As a child, Hume was able to read and had a reasonable understanding of Greek and Latin. When he was 12, Hume went to the University of Edinburgh and threw over a potential career in law, favoring philosophy and basic learning. At the age of 15, Hume left the University of Edinburgh and focused on what he is most famous for, philosophy. Unfortunately, David Hume died in Edinburgh at the age of 65 on August 25th, 1776 from Colo rectal Cancer.

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David Hume was a Scottish philosopher in the 1700's. His contribution to philosophy is still remembered today. Unlike Rationalists, such as Descartes, Hume simply stated, "It is not reason that governs human behavior but desire instead" ("David Hume"). With this type of argument, David Hume caused controversy at the time, but still inspired many philosophers later on.