Hume First Enquiry

Jay Elliott
February 6, 2012

Attack on Locke and Leibniz: David Hume Kant
Hume and Kant fundamentally opposed
But Kant appreciated him greatly
Kant says that reading of Hume interrupted his
dogmatic slumber
Hume says we cant take powers of reason for granted
Reflect on limits of reason
Follow Hume, deny metaphysics
Focus: Cause and Effect in Hume
Period Before Hume: Spinoza, Berkeley
METAPHYSICS
Dont be deceived by commonsensical style of Hume
This stuff is explosive

Who Was David Hume?
One of few philosophers admired for philosophical
lifestyle/death
As dying, wrote down My Own Life
Model of philosophical
Family
Earl of Hume (Home)
Youngest son
Father was lawyerexpected to follow
Only wanted philosophy/writer
AHHH WENT TO EDINBURGH AT 11?!
Mom: Our Davies a fine creature, but weak minded
Expressing frustration at how long it took to
become $ independent
Starving Artist in France
Resolved to regard every object as contemptible except
improvement of my talents in literature
Treatise of Human Nature, publishes in Britain
High hopes, as young man
Disappointment at lack of reception
Fell dead born from the press
Began to acquire fleshy physique
The corpulence of his person was more turtle
Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding
Got reception
Celebrity in Scotland, more in France
Hume remarked: Never met a real life atheistmet
15 at a dinner party, the rest agnostic
Relationship with Rousseau
Rousseau forced to leave Switzerland, not to be
trusted
Hume got house and pension for Rousseau in UK
Rousseau, paranoid, refused, fought, returned to France
Quiet Life
Disorder in his bowels.immortal
Never suffered in abatement of my spirit
Died without regret

Humes way with skepticism: 3 quotes
Skepticism?
Descartes escaped with God
Spinoza with reason
Both began with something indubitable
BK showed that skeptical doubts are false assumption
Hume
Skepticism is unavoidable because doubts cannot be
decisively answered by reason
Connection between human mind and world is not
matter of reason
Wrong to show mind cxn to reality
[XII.ii p159]
Escape from Skepticism: Real Practical LIfe
Shade of schools and abstract discussion
Life leave[s] the most determined skeptic in the same
condition as other mortals
Skepticisms value in undermining of reason shows
reason NOT to be foundation of our lives
Skepticism limits fruitless fancies of reason
[XII.iii p162]
Species of mitigated skepticism narrows thought to
human understanding in common life
We know what genuine knowledge looks like
Knowledge of fact (from experience)
Knowledge of relation of ideas (math)
[XII.iii p165]
Abstract reasoning? Experimental reasoning? TO THE
FLAMES

What Hume said about cause and effect, and why it was so
scandalous
1. Knowledge of c/e is not attained by reasoning a
priori, BUT FROM EXPERIENCE
2. Knowledge of c/e not from senses
Knowledge of causes from experience (not sensory)
3. Experience customary conjunction of one kind of
event with another

Scandalous
Proofs of God and immortality of human soul depend
on inference from observed effects to unobserved causes
(Proving faith on rational grounds, reconcile faith and
reason)
Brings into question metaphysics
Cast doubts on traditional (and RELIGIOUS) thought
Case Study: Argument from Design
Humes argument that infer causes w/o reasoning and
only experience
If never experience the cause, no grounds to speculate
about its effects
Ouch. Puts this in his religious work.
Sets faith in opposition to reason
Case Study: Immortality of the Soul
Reasoning from effects to causes
Descartes: ThinkingExistence
Soul immortal to survive death of the body
People worried about Humes immortal soul
Put pressure on reconciliation of reason and faith
Post-Hume philosophers must set limits on reason
to acknowledge faith


Humes problem about cause and effect in the first Enquiry
Hume on billiard balls
Dont get to know causes through senses
[IV.i p29-30]
You didnt see the cue ball have effect on 8 ball!
Could CONCEIVE different effects after touching
NO, PHYSICS. ELASTIC COLLISION.
We dont SEE cause and effect
Where is necessity of ball moving after touched?
Only know the (accidental) CONJUNCTION of
events
NOT CONNECTION
What if conjunction happens lots of times?
Nope. Chuck Testa.
Just another accident.
How do we know that future will resemble the past?
All experience in past
Sun will rise, spring follows winter
Can give knowledge
Future has always resembled past up to now
But how do we know that this trend will
continue?

Problem: Not about usefulness or necessity of causal beliefs
Objector: my practice refutes my doubts
Hume: You mistake the purport of my question.

Humes skeptical solution
Causal judgements cannot be justified theoretically
Positive point: justified practically (for practical life)
[V.ii p55]
Knowledge limited to narrow sphere of memory and
senses
Final causes people have ample subject to employ
wonder
Causal talk doesnt say anything about essence, but
appearance
Observation of human blindness and weakness is in all
philosophy
Philosophy makes us seem blind and weak
Once we abandon these empty pretences, common life