The Skepticism of David Hume

Paper Summary:

This paper briefly discusses Hume's philosophy which explored and attempted to prove that reason and rational judgments are simply habitual associations of distinct sensations or experiences. It discusses how Hume's views on human perception and memory were mainly influenced by the positions of British philosophers John Locke and George Berkeley, both of whom offered distinct differences between reason and sensation.

From the Paper:

"To begin with, Hume's paradigm of skepticism attempts to discern truth as it applies to human perceptions and ideas. In regard to perception, Hume was the primary dissenter when it came to pointing out the ruinous implications of the so-called representative theory of perception held by a number of his philosophical predecessors. As explained by this view, when a human perceives a certain object, whether organic or inorganic, a mental impression or image forms in the mind, an internalized subjective representation of that object which one infers to be a physical, objective fact. Yet there are several problems associated with this premise, i.e. whether or not truth is understood as being the conformity between the perceived images and the object and if mental impressions or ideas are reliable indicators of an object's true physicality."

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