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Poll:David Hume

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Poll Question: David Hume
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TheAlaniDragonRising View Drop Down
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  Quote TheAlaniDragonRising Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Topic: Poll:David Hume
    Posted: 17-May-2011 at 22:23
Is/was this man something special?

David Hume (7 May 1711 [26 April O.S.] – 25 August 1776) was a Scottish philosopherhistorianeconomist, and essayist, known especially for his philosophicalempiricism and skepticism. He is regarded as one of the most important figures in the history of Western philosophy and the Scottish Enlightenment. Hume is often grouped with John LockeGeorge Berkeley, and a handful of others as a British Empiricist.[1]

Beginning with his A Treatise of Human Nature (1739), Hume strove to create a total naturalistic "science of man" that examined the psychological basis of human nature. In stark opposition to the rationalists who preceded him, most notably Descartes, he concluded that desire rather than reason governed human behavior, saying famously: "Reason is, and ought only to be the slave of the passions." A prominent figure in the skeptical philosophical tradition and a strong empiricist, he argued against the existence of innate ideas, concluding instead that humans have knowledge only of things they directly experience. Thus he divides perceptions between strong and lively "impressions" or direct sensations and fainter "ideas," which are copied from impressions. He developed the position that mental behavior is governed by "custom"; our use of induction, for example, is justified only by our idea of the "constant conjunction" of causes and effects. Without direct impressions of a metaphysical "self," he concluded that humans have no actual conception of the self, only of a bundle of sensations associated with the self. Hume advocated acompatibilist theory of free will that proved extremely influential on subsequent moral philosophy. He was also a sentimentalist who held that ethics are based on feelings rather than abstract moral principles. Hume also examined the normative is–ought problem. He held notoriously ambiguous views of Christianity,[2] but famously challenged the argument from design in his Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion (1779).

Kant credited Hume with waking him up from his "dogmatic slumbers" and Hume has proved extremely influential on subsequent philosophy, especially on utilitarianism,logical positivismWilliam Jamesphilosophy of science, early analytic philosophy, cognitive philosophy, and other movements and thinkers. The philosopher Jerry Fodor proclaimed Hume's Treatise "the founding document of cognitive science."[3] Also famous as a prose stylist,[4] Hume pioneered the essay as a literary genre and engaged with contemporary intellectual luminaries such as Jean-Jacques RousseauAdam Smith (who acknowledged Hume's influence on his economics and political philosophy), James BoswellJoseph Butler, and Thomas Reid.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Hume

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Toltec View Drop Down
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  Quote Toltec Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 18-May-2011 at 09:32
The thing I like most about Hume is if he is right, science doesn't work. If you're going to be a sceptic, don't do it in half measures.
 
Thee minute Philosophy did a great one on him.
 
Stupidity got us into this mess, why can't it get us out?

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  Quote TheAlaniDragonRising Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 18-May-2011 at 12:56
Originally posted by Toltec

The thing I like most about Hume is if he is right, science doesn't work. If you're going to be a sceptic, don't do it in half measures.
 
Thee minute Philosophy did a great one on him.
 

I think it's more like you can't guarantee that what you have found to be true in the past will continue to be true. However it would be madness to presume everything will be different, and anyway I believe the mind sets out to look for similarities so it would be almost impossible to live your life without retaining information to use as a comparison to do so. 
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  Quote opuslola Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 18-May-2011 at 17:26
Looking for "similarities" is my middle name!


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