Hume's Scepticism: An Analysis

Paper Summary:

This paper reviews, discusses and analyzes the sceptic attitude of David Hume and argues that in fact, Hume is the pioneer of modern rationalism. According to the paper, the scepticism of Hume is usually portrayed as an end in itself, whereas in truth it was nothing other than the beginning of a new rationalism - a rationalism that is rooted in human psychology instead of absolute and self-evident axioms.

From the Paper:

"David Hume is customarily classed as a rabid proponent of empirical scepticism, and his philosophical tracts that express this point of view are analysed in order to derive a tradition of empirical scepticism that begins with Hobbes and climaxes with the blatant Pyrrhonianism of Hume. But rarely is he mentioned as the pioneer of modern rationalism, which as I argue in this essay, he was. The scepticism of Hume is usually portrayed as an end in itself, whereas in truth it was nothing other than the beginning of a new rationalism - a rationalism that is rooted in human psychology instead of absolute and self-evident axioms. It emerged at a point where the Newtonian paradigm, in its mechanical manifestation, was rendered philosophically bankrupt by empirical scepticism. Hume reinstated the supremacy of the Newtonian model by applying it to the analysis of the human psyche, and thereby he rescued the advance of science."

Sample of Sources Used:

• Cassirer, Ernst. The Philosophy of the Enlightenment. Trans. Fritz C. A. Koelln and James P. Pettegrove. Boston: Beacon Press, 1951.
• Hume, David. A Treatise on Human Nature. Charleston, SC: BiblioBazaar, 2006.
• Hume, David. An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding. Tom L. Beauchamp (Ed.) New York: Oxford University Press, USA, 2006.
• Mossner, Ernest Campbell. Bishop Butler and the Age of Reason: A Study in the History Of Thought. New York: Macmillan, 1936.

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