Hume and Kant

Paper Summary:

This paper explores the crucial connection between David Hume to Immanuel Kant. The paper aims to show that their respective philosophies are in essence the same. The paper reports that because they gave rise to such divergent traditions, they are generally analysed as being philosophically apart.

From the Paper:

"Immanuel Kant was a rabid Newtonian, and indeed an active scientist, until a blinding realisation took over him on coming across a remark of Hume's. He is credited with the nebular hypothesis of planetary formation, originated while he taught mathematics and Newton's physics at the University of Konigsberg. After his momentous realisation he dedicated the rest of life to philosophy alone. The contention of Hume is that reason must be directed to the human sphere, and must be serving passions, not abstractions in the head. But such reasoning must have a moral substratum if it is not to revert to Hobbesian anarchy - the war of all against all. This is where Hume fails, because though he does advance a morality - the utilitarian argument, "the greatest good of the greatest number" - it remains cold and calculating, thus devoid of inspiration value. Kant fills this lack. "

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.
• Hume, David. An Enquiry Concerning the Principles of Morals. White Fish, MT: Kessinger Publishing, 2004.
• Kant, Immanuel. Critique of Pure Reason. Werner S. Pluhar (Trans.), Eric Watkins (Ed.) Boston: Hackett Publishing Company, 1999.

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