Schopenhauer Essay And Aphorisms

6 Pages 1522 Words

In “An Inquiry Concerning Human Understanding”, is a controversial theoretical book by David Hume. Throughout this book Hume made various theories concerning the formation of the mind and the beliefs that proceed from it. He also gives reasoning for human belief in God, and rationalizing of the external world. One of Hume’s theories about knowledge and ideas which has struck numerous readers as controversial is the theory on “Matters of Fact”. “Matters of Fact” are ideas caused by impressions which are formed by past experiences. Impressions are a vivid insight of the external world and an idea is the weak feeling of an impression. These ideas and impressions are based on the assumption that all ideas have impressions; therefore humans are not able to create ideas without impressions. Also do to the fact that “Matters of Fact are based on past experiences, Hume hypothesis that humans are not able to predict the future, they can only make inferences.
Impressions and ideas according to Hume are the major and basic building block of human knowledge. Hume explains impressions as “all our more lively perception, when we hear or see, or feel, or love, or hate, or desire, or will”. (p27) Ideas on the other hand are the reflecting back on perceptions in the mind which are less vivid then the actual perception. (p27) The process of a thought flowing from an impression to an idea and past impressions to an idea is called the law of association of ideas. The law of association of ideas is the base for complex ideas which is the formation of more then one simple idea. These laws, terms and with the help of other theories suggested by Hume give way to the understanding of the human external world. By simply screening Hume’s theories one may see his views worthy of believing, but by taking a closer look an individual can easily create a view to dispute his theory. In one theory Hume states that humans can not imagi...