Hume skeptical doubts essays

Hume skeptical doubts essays It is said that wisdom is a product of experience. The human consciousness uses experience to identify situations and formulate connections between action and consequence. When observing a young child it is obvious that they lack the experience necessary to predict the outcome of their actions. They are novice to the world and have yet to undergo the experiences necessary to develop the ability to connect consequence to action. The philosopher David Hume in his book, An Inquiry Concerning Human Understanding, addresses these skeptical doubts. In the text Hume sets out to establish what the reasoning concerning matters of fact are founded on the relation of cause and effect, we are able to use the experiences of past events in order to make inferences that allow us to predict future events. In the section Skeptical Doubts Concerning the Operations of Understanding, Hume doubts the role that reason plays in this process. Hume thinks all ideas are derived from previous experiences. He says, This proposition, that causes and effects are discoverable not by reason, but by experience. (338) If a person has never experienced a certain impression, they cannot have an idea concerning it. If they never tasted anything bitter before, then they cannot conceive the idea of bitterness. Any idea must be traceable back to an original impression, otherwise we cant understand what is meant by the idea. Hume suggests that without prior knowledge, it would be impossible to predict the future. No object ever discovers, by the qualities which appear to the senses, either the causes which produced it or the effects which will arise from it; nor can our reason, unassisted by experience, ever draw any inference concerning real existence and matter of fact. (338). Hume proves that knowledge based on cause and effect relies only on experience and cann ...