David Humes Thoughts On Empiricism Essay

One of the most not fit figures in the history of western philosophy was Scottish philosopher David Hume. Hume was widely known for his views on Empiricism. Empiricism has been pondered since the beginnings of philosophy by many famous figures, from Aristotle to John Locke. (Wikipedia) Empiricism claims that human knowledge is founded on observation and use of the five senses. Hume published a literary build titled Enquiry concerning Human Understanding. This had a profound impact on empiricist philosophy. (Heter)In section 2 of the Enquiry concerning Human Understanding, titled Of the line of Ideas, Hume makes distinctions about movies and estimations. Simply stating how a memory obtained from the central nervous placement can never reach the level of naked, vividness that the sea captain impression had made. An example of this concept can be something along the lines of experiencing free fall. We keep up all experienced free fall at some orientate in our lives. Simply rec alling that moment can never fully bear us to grasp the gut wrenching excitement of pure gravity.An evoke thought brought forward in section 2 is The Copy Principle. Hume states tho though our thought seems to possess this unbounded liberty, we shall find, upon a ne atomic number 18r examination, that it is rattling confined within very narrow limits, and that all this creative great power of the mind amounts to no more than the faculty of compounding, transposing, augmenting, or diminishing the existents afforded us by the senses and real life experience(Enquiry, incision II) In seculars terms, imagination of the human mind world power be perceived as limitless.However, inreality, it is really a combination of sensory selective information and real life experiences. To this end, Hume believes that there are no truly original ideas. Everything we can conceive is a copy or modification of material afforded to us by our surroundings. Examples of this can be found all somewh at us. Such as the design of a plane matching the find out of a bird or Velcro behaving as burdock burrs. (Bloomberg) An interest point Hume brings to our attention is the Blind Man Argument. Hume claims that a person graphic blind has no notions of what color is.If you grant that individual the ability to see, you put in him with a new channel for ideas. Without this inlet, he would commence no idea what color is. Therefore, color must come from the senses. (Enquiry, Section II) One might quarry to Humes copy principle by stating that original ideas are created quite frequently. A perfect example of this is the telephone. There was no object in the known universe that was able to transmit encoded sound waves through electrical wire over vast distances to a receiver in the beginning the telephone.This invention came into existence through pure innovation. The blind man short letter presents an error. Just because a blind man cannot make an association betwixt the word red a nd the color red doesnt mean that they have never seen it before. Perhaps the man has seen the color red countless clock in his dreams. However, without having another individual identify the same color and dish up him form the association between the word and the color, the blind man allow never know what red means.Countering my objection to The Copy Principle, all the natural resources we are afforded on earthcan be combined, transformed or restructured to create something else. Basically, everything we have created can be broken down to the raw materials found within our environment. This makes it impossible to create something truly new. The telephone is barely a combination of oil, copper, aluminum, silicone, ect. In defense of The Blind Man Argument, commonwealth born without the ability to see, claim they see nothing. They might empathize how the color spectrum works but they will never be able to sense what the actual color looks like.For one to know the answer to this debate, he or she have the ability to see and be blind at the same time. Hume certainly brings up some interesting concepts. For this reason, scholars have been canvas his ideas for centuries. Empiricism and rationalism are in constant disagreement. Both philosophical notions are extremely hard to disprove. Works Cited Hennighausen, Amelia, and Eric Roston. 14 Smart Inventions shake up by Nature Biomimicry Nature as R&D Lab. Bloomberg. com. Bloomberg, 19 Aug. 2013. Web. 20 Sept. 2013.Heter, T. Storm. Empiricism. First Philosophy A Handbook for Beginning Philosophers. N. p. n. p. , n. d. 15-21. Print. Hume, David. Section II Of the Origin of Ideas. An Enquiry concerning Human Understanding. N. p. n. p. , 1784. N. pag. Print. Wikipedia contributors. David Hume. Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, 30 Aug. 2013. Web. 21 Sep. 2013. Wikipedia contributors. Empiricism. Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, 15 Sep. 2013 . Web. 21 Sep. 2013.