Hume's Causality Theory

Term Paper # 100293

Philosophy

This paper discusses Hume's theory of causality to explain how and why we make judgments of causality.

1,482 words () | 9 sources | MLA | 2007 United States

Paper Summary:

The paper examines David Hume's philosophy of causality that follows on from the empiricist philosophy. The paper discusses Hume's theory that people do not make judgments of how or why because causality does not exist. The paper explains the belief that only through the senses is information recorded, processed and inscribed upon our empty minds as a reaction to an aggregated association of thought. The paper stresses how empiricist philosophy denies the relevance of the person as a social, choosing being.

From the Paper:

"David Hume (1711-1776) was the last and perhaps most controversially influential of "the three most famous British Empiricists of the eighteenth century" [John Locke 1632-1704, and George Berkeley (1685-1753](Flage 1). Although Hume's ideas had great impact on Immanuel Kant, Adam Smith, Jeremy Bentham, and Charles Darwin, the concept of empiricism can be traced back at least to Protagoras of Abdera, a fifth century Greek Sophist, who propounded the radical relativism that "Of all things the measure is man, of the things that are, that {or'how'] they are, and of things that [or 'how'] they are not" (Poster 4). Protagoras' taught that judgment of qualities, as abstractions like truth, are subjective, relative only to the individual observer. This, of course, is the basis of empiricism, the philosophy that all knowledge is derived from the experiences of the senses."

Sample of Sources Used:

Fieser, James. "The Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy: David Hume (1711-1776): Metaphysics andEpistemology".18 pgs. 2004 http://www.iep.utm.edu/h/humeepis.htm
Flage, Daniel E. "The Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy:George Berkeley (1685-1753". 15 Pgs.2006
Morris, William Edward. "Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy:David Hume". 16 Pgs. 2001 http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/hume/
Poster, Carol. "The Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy:Protagoras (c.490-c.420 BCE)". 7 Pgs. 2006
Ross, Kelly L. "Hume Shifts the Burden of Proof".http://www.friesian.com/hume.htm5 pgs. 2001