David Hume Essays (Examples)

Once the reader gets past the language and time issues that have passed since Hume's lifetime, the ideas he presents become clear and make a great deal of sense.
Hume uses several main arguments and conclusions in his writing. The first two are the most important, as they seem to set the groundwork for the others. The first is that everyone has impression and ideas about things but that these must be examined closely because they are often false. This seems logical because many things that people do, when looked back on, are found to be not really the best or most logical choice after all.

The second thing that Hume points out is that there are two different kinds of reasoning. One deals with fact and the other with ideas. Facts deal with mathematically-based issues that can be proven, and the other deals with understandings that have been passed…

This psychological egalitarianism was how he differed from many of the economists of his day. He did not make a distinction between the different classes of men, but believed that all men look for happiness, which included action and pleasure.

Hume's historical viewpoint included the realization that changes in economic life resulting from the expansion of trade carried with them changed demands on the entire population, and in the case of the workers, these demands would be met only if there was enough motivation. Workers, like other men, would only assume their responsibilities if guaranteed adequate reward, which as with the middle class will produce increased desire. With an expectation of a better future, men would exert themselves.

In opposition to his colleagues, Hume argued that the lower classes were equals of all men and that the betterment of society was based upon satisfying of the needs of the poor.…

Hume and Montesquieu
David Hume and aron de Montesquieu were two of the Enlightenment Era's most famed philosophers. These two men had remarkably innovative ideas regarding the subject of commerce, which were very similar in many ways, yet different in others.

Renowned philosopher David Hume's Political Discourses essays presented an argument against the mercantilist theory, which insisted on retaining money only in one's own country (Penelhaum, 1995). Hume's gold-flow theory argued that increased money in one country automatically circulates to other countries.

For example, according to Hume, if England receives an influx of new money, the new money will increase the prices of labor and domestic products in England. As a result, foreign country will offer cheaper products than England, which will then import these products, resulting in the circulation of money to other countries.

Hume asserted that the same thing occurs if a country loses money. If England loses…

David Hume's Concept Of Reason And Passion
e live in an age that places great primacy on reason. ith the evolution of scientific and technological knowledge, most people in estern societies believe that the faculties of reason should determine and motivate people's actions. More than two hundred years ago, however, British philosopher David Hume posited that reason cannot be the major determinant of moral action. Instead, reason should only play a secondary role to another primary human faculty -- passion.

This paper argues the continuing relevance of Hume's thesis, that despite the current level of scientific knowledge, passion remains the strongest determinant of ethical and moral action. The first part of this paper evaluates Hume's conception of reason as an ability to calculate and to discern causation. The next part of the paper then looks at Hume's definition and categories of conception. In the final section, the paper compares Hume's…

The dictionary defines morality as "1. standards of conduct that are accepted as right or proper; 2. The rightness or wrongness of something as judged by accepted moral standards; 3. A lesson in moral behavior." (Encarta, 1999) All three of those definitions have a strong element of the larger society in them.

Public discussions of moral behavior also emphasize the social nature of judging behavior. In Great ritain, Tony lair gave a speech where he argued for a "new social morality" that included duties as well as rights ((Lloyd, 1996)). Such comments demonstrate the difficulty of establishing whose morality is the right one. lair is a politician, and it seems reasonable that he was motivated by his political ambitions at least as much as he was concerned about the moral development of individuals. ut in addition, most people probably already include their duties in what they consider moral behavior. For…

"that the author of nature is somewhat similar to the mind of man; though possessed of much larger faculties, proportioned to the grandeur of the work, which he has executed," indicating that there is existence of Deity who has similarity to man but us more apportioned to the deeds and the works of His hands.
7. How is anthropomorphism used in relation to the argument?

Anthropomorphism is used in relation to this argument to compare human form and characteristics to God's. For example in the passage Damea imagines that the spirit of God has human ideas or bears resemblance to our spirit hence the Anthropomorphism.

8. How is analogy used in relation to the argument?

Analogy is used to compare human beings with God where in the passage Philo says that we ought not to imagine that the perfection of God and that of man can be compared. This is…

Hume
UFOs and Resurrections: Why there can be no evidence for miracles, according to Hume

If an object falls from a tree and then suddenly starts to rise back up, there must be a natural explanation. For example, the object must be a bird or other animal that can fly, or a sudden gust of wind might have carried the object back up. In any case, a law of nature was not violated and the event was not a miracle. For extreme cases, such as the supposed resurrection of the dead claimed in the Christian Bible, philosopher David Hume states there can be absolutely no evidence. This is because of four specific reasons. First, "there is not to be found, in all history, any miracle attested by a sufficient number of men, of such unquestioned good-sense, education, and learning, as to secure us against all delusion in themselves." In other…

Accidental possessions are those that an entity can achieve and fail, yet he exists. If a set of required possessions is mutual by various individuals than the set of possessions represents the essence of a natural sorts. The point of Aristotelian science is to find out the continuations of the natural kinds. Kinds can then be prearranged with hierarchically within a classificatory arrangement of genus and types. When we make out ideas of modes the mind is again functioning but the prime example is in our mind. Modes provide us the ideas of mathematics of ethics, religion and politics, certainly of human gatherings in general. As these modal ideas are not only created by us but performed as principle wise that things in the universe either fit or do not fit. Therefore it belongs or do not belongs to that types, ideas of modes are obvious and different, sufficient and…

Art Philosophy
Tragedy in Art

The newspapers are forever mentioning the word, 'tragedy'. It usually means that there has been a death or deaths associated with a catastrophic event. Surprisingly, this is in keeping with the use of tragedy as described by Aristotle: that it should evoke the emotions of pity and fear in the presence of an action of a certain magnitude. Pablo Picasso's 1937 mural, Guernica: Testimony of ar, is the epitome of tragedy in art as described by David Hume in his essay, Of Tragedy.

Hume expresses the belief that tragedy may be seen within art through the experience of passion, spirit, uneasiness and a certain pleasure brought about by an understanding of the symbolic aesthetic. He states, "The whole art of the poet is employed in rousing and supporting the compassion and indignation, the anxiety and resentment of his audience. They are pleased in proportion as…

" As such, Philo represents the ideology that God should remain important within the religious sphere, and that it is perfectly ok for people to love and admire Him from a religious standpoint. Yet, science is based on collecting evidence from actual observations. Because we cannot directly observe God, there is no room for Him in the genre of science. We cannot observe His behavior or record what he looks like in any sort of detail. Neither can we ask Him fundamental questions about the nature of our existence in order to help us on our quest to understand why we are here. He simply won't answer. Due to that, there is no way to rely on Him for anyone to base any sort of scientific or empirical assumptions of God's word or teachings as seen from the Bible, which was written by a mere human being.
Philo does not…

Parenting is a challenging occupation. Indeed, how a parent raises his or her child is the cumulative result of the mental and emotional character of the parent, the background of the parent, the financial circumstances of the parent, how the parent was raised as a child, and also the emotional character of the child or the actions of the child. Consider a situation where the parent indulges in corporal punishment. As an action agent, the parent firmly believes that this punishment is of a corrective nature, meant to discipline the child. For the child receiving this punishment, certainly it is momentarily painful. The child might resent the punishment; alternatively, the child might recognize that the punishment is in response to instances of mischief.
The spectator might as the moral purveyor of this scenario might see this as a virtue or a vice. The spectator might believe that the corporal punishment…

Descartes systematic approach to establishing an understanding of that which is rationally true inherently called on him to reject all assumed notions of what was true. This 'atheist' thought which he rejected would be characterized by its unfounded but universally accepted nature. By casting doubt and applying testing methods to assumed facts, Descartes sought to provide a living framework entirely governed by empiricism. Such a doctrine inclined Descartes to conclude that man could not accept himself to be capable of distinguishing between his experiences as he dreams and those which he has while awake. Descartes' assessment is derived from his own framework for the resolution of knowledge and, within the parameters that he had designed, is a functionally acceptable one. Indeed, he establishes meaningful similarities between our experiences in both realms.
Indeed, Descartes' view on dreams stems from his umbrella system of epistemology, which is instructed by the pursuit of…

Hume and the Lack of a Causal Link Between Our Known Experiences and the Existence of a Supreme Being
The "here and now": That is what concerns David Hume. There is simply no value in discussing such amorphous intangibles as one can infer from "the course of nature." More precisely, humans -- of them, philosophers -- cannot and should not be enticed to "regulate" their "conduct" by parameters such as the afterlife or God. Hume grounds his thinking in causality -- specifically the lack of causal link between "the experienced train of events" and the existence of a perfect being.

To understand Hume's view that contemplations of God are "uncertain and useless," one has to begin with Hume's philosophical methods. Hume is an empiricist philosopher. Hume works to bring the rigors of scientific methodology to the otherwise more fluid process of philosophical reasoning. The critical lynchpin here is Hume's distinction…

David Hume, in the fifth section of his work entitled, An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding, dismisses the concept that reasoning is the foundation upon which conclusions are necessarily drawn. As an empiricist, Hume believed that it was essential that individuals obtain knowledge based upon their own experience and observations. He classified knowledge into two types: the relations between ideas and matters of fact. In Hume's mind, mathematics is the classic example of a relations of ideas type knowledge. This is the only form of reasoning that has complete certainty. He considered such knowledge as being a priori while the other style of knowledge, matter of facts, was a posteriori. Relations of ideas are true by definition or logic while matters of fact must be learned and tested by one's senses.
The essence of matter of fact knowledge is the process of observation and employing induction and probability. Acquiring this knowledge…

Hume's Argument Against Induction
According to the empiricist English philosopher David Hume, inductive logic is inherently invalid. Hume took an extremely radical view of empiricism, the point of philosophical view that immediate, perceptual experience alone should validate inquiry into the nature of human existence and the nature of reality. Inductive logic is derived from assumptions and hypothesis about natural laws that govern the universe. Because every situation is different, Hume believed, every situation can and must be judged upon its own terms. One cannot assume because something happened in the past it will happen again in the future.

Induction depends upon a series of assumptions about something and generates the hypothesis that is event must always the case, based on a predictability of observations that validates a proposed hypothesis. Thus for Hume it was just as invalid as deductive logic, or making rationalist judgments based upon categorical assumptions. I might…

Philosophy
David Hume and Immanuel Kant have both had tremendous impact on the field of philosophy. Their contributions, especially "A treatise of human nature" by Hume and the "Critique of pure reason" by Kant are masterpieces in philosophical literature. oth of them have left their own novel ideas and concepts, which deeply influenced and gave a new understanding to domains as diverse as philosophy, politics and religion. Let us study the ideas of Hume and Kant in a little detail and try to have a comparative study of their philosophies.

Hume's Matters of Fact and Relations of ideas

Hume's analyses of human mentality is based on two different components namely impressions and ideas. Impressions are vivid and strong creations of our experiences while ideas are feeble reflections of the impressions. According to Hume all ideas have a preceding impression. All human belief systems are a result of the linking or…

Thus, Sam argues that although the world often seems unjust (and is filled with innumerable instances of evil), yet P. is solved through the belief that every condition (good, in this case) necessitates an equal and opposite condition (evil, as it were.) However, Gretchen counters by asking whether those who behave in an evil way are ever punished for their transgressions, and whether there is any motivation for people to not simply act in their own best interests, whether or not this involves behaving in an immoral manner. Sam's rejoinder appeals to the afterlife as the site in which the importance of morality becomes manifest: "But the doctrine of an afterlife, in whatever form, says that this isn't the whole story" (47). However, Sam disregards the fact that God is purported to pardon many sinners, which would ostensibly mean that he regularly pardons instances of injustice.

The dialogue between Sam…

Political Obligation
When it comes to political science and philosophy, there are many subjects and points of analysis that are very intriguing, widely discussed and heavily debated. There are also certain people, both past and present, that have proved themselves as scholars on those political subjects. Such is the case with both John Locke and David Hume. One particular subject that both men weighed in on was the role of consent when it comes to the creation of political obligation. The positions of both men will be covered in this report and the author of the same will come to a conclusion as to which man made the better argument. Political obligation, of course, is the general rule that the law must be obeyed. Consent, on the other hand, is much more nebulous in terms of definition and concept and that will be covered in this report. While both men…

Kant and David on Causality; Rousseau and Adam Smith on Social Order
Compare and contrast Rousseau and Adam Smith, on the importance of economic or political mark in their account of social order.

Rousseau saw the development of organized political life as synonymous with generating social inequality. As "individuals have more contact with one another and small groupings begin to form, the human mind develops language, which in turn contributes to the development of reason" (Discourse on inequality, Spark Notes, 2012). This development of reason, although it seems like a positive advancement for the species, also enables human beings to compare their lot with others. As institutions are drawn up to govern the new society, persons with greater political and economic strength (generated through holding political or leadership positions or private property) come to dominate over other citizens. The more complex societies become, the more they necessitate divisions of labor,…

Hume's conception is a more temperate one, but at the same time more vague, skeptical and relative. Neither for Hume, the substance of body or soul is not the primary focus, but the changing perceptions - becoming conscious of the bundle of perceptions characteristic for a person at a certain time. However, for Hume, these perceptions do not belong to anything; they do not belong to a "thinking substance" as with Locke. Hume holds that the "self" is utterly unobservable. In the process of introspection, all we may observe are fleeting thoughts, feelings, and experiences: never a self. Therefore, Hume's view on personal identity is not entirely clear, Locke establishes a clearer concept of personal identity, even though a contradictory one.
A common point between the two philosophers is their diachronic view of personal identity. ith Locke, the same soul or thinking substance is neither necessary not sufficient for personal…

ationalism is based on logic, or -- rather -- the proper ordering of things. That order, according to Plato, is necessarily hierarchical and his Allegory of the Cave explicitly shows it: the philosopher is one who has striven to leave behind the shadows and worked to climb the hill, until he has reached a revelation of sorts. It is then his duty to go back and instruct the ignorant who still live in the darkness of the cave by appealing to their intellect. While empiricism explains all knowledge as deriving from experience, ationalism explains all knowledge as logical. In other words, experience is not necessary to gain philosophical wisdom, for the life of the mind allows one to logically grasp one conclusion from the next. Platonic ationalism emphasizes the intellect over sheets of data.
In conclusion, I prefer the Platonic theory of knowledge because I find many of the modern…

To achieve his ends man gives up, in favour of the state, a certain amount of his personal power and freedom Pre-social man as a moral being, and as an individual, contracted out "into civil society by surrendering personal power to the ruler and magistrates, and did so as "a method of securing natural morality more efficiently." To Locke, natural justice exists and this is so whether the state exists, or not, it is just that the state might better guard natural justice Locke in his works dwelt with and expanded upon the concept of government power: it is not, nor can it possibly be, absolutely arbitrary over the lives and fortunes of the people. For it being but the joint power of every member of the society given up to the legislative assembly, the power vested in the assembly can be no greater than that which the people had…

A good example as to why causation isn't always connected is found on page 420. Hume asserts that only when two objects are "constantly conjoined" can observers "infer the one from the other." But rarely are two effects and two causes connected, Hume continues. If a cause and effect have "resemblance" to another cause and effect, they can be conjoined, but that is rare indeed.

Put into simpler words, Hume doubts that even with a repetition of conjunctions it would be safe to believe a "connection" between the cause and effect would be established. Indeed, after a person experiences sees instances repeated repetitiously, the mind is convinced through the person's habits and reflections that upon the introduction of one event, another event is expected to happen, and humans believe this will happen. His own explanation is that a cause is an "…object followed by another, and whose appearance always conveys…

Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion, Hume offers a complex and multifaceted analysis of the concept of God. The ongoing debate between atheism and theism is resolved in part by an assertion that human beings are technically incapable of absolutely knowing or defining, or at least simply speaking about God. Moreover, the debate between theism and atheism is nullified by the fact that it is difficult, if not impossible, to define God in terms satisfying or agreeable to all parties. There are anthropomorphic gods, creator gods, gods that interact with or interfere with human lives and gods that are distant and detached. Hume argues that any argument related to theism vs. atheism is invalid unless a definition of terms is provided clearly and adhered to consistently. Yet paradoxically, any discussion of God is cloaked in "perpetual ambiguity" because of the limitations of both human language and human cognition (Hume 217). Through the…

Hume's Problem Of Induction
David Hume is known as one of the foremost skeptics and humanists of his time, who exalted in mankind's ability to transform the world through science. Somewhat ironically, then, one of his most far-reaching philosophical contributions was to phrase the problem of induction which today is often thought to deny scientific knowledge. Just a couple chapters of a single book, Hume posed a question which has yet to be satisfactorily answered, despite the great intervening time. In its most simple form, Hume's problem merely asked what evidence there was to support the instinctive understanding that the future would resemble the past, and then pointed out that since he could see no logical reason why this should be the case, then he could not with reasonably say that it must be so. And despite attempts to dismiss his challenge, it seems no one has yet come up…

All the people know what the brain is, what it looks like and where it is located. This does not however constitute the basis for the idea of min, yet the concept exists and is powerful enough to give birth to endless debate.
Kant on the other hand underlines the fact that the properties which the mind has and which allow it to create meaning depend exclusively on the physical existence of the mind. Hume might be characterized as a skeptic who needs the empiric truth in order to be able to admit the validity of an existing concept/idea/thing. Kant on the other hand is more concerned with a theory which we might define as a transcendentalist one.

If the mind has the capacity of acknowledging the difference between the perception and the creation of the concepts, then it must be that the mind does not necessary need the physical…

Reality and Knowledge
Epistemology (the study of knowledge) has occupied philosophers and laypeople alike for as long as human beings have had a conception of reality and knowledge. Many philosophers, beginning with Plato, have argued that reality and knowledge are essentially abstract concepts. Aristotle argued, in contrast that knowledge and reality must be based on the senses and inductive reasoning, while Hume argued that our understanding of reality and causation is fundamentally flawed, and that skepticism was the only workable way to knowledge of the world and the internal self. The philosopher George Berkeley presented what is perhaps the most extreme argument against an Aristotelian view of reality in arguing that the material world does not exist, and that objects are simply made of up ideas. hile Berkeley's view of reality as based solely upon the mind is extreme and somewhat tenuous, Hume's understanding of the limitations causality and human…

First, there is the combining of simple ideas into one single complex idea, "and thus all complex ideas are made" (Locke, 213). Humans also have the ability to look at two ideas simultaneously without combining the; Locke calls these ideas of relations. Finally, abstraction occurs when ideas are separated form all other ideas that generally accompany them in experience. In this manner, Locke believes he has completely described and defined all types and aspects of human thought.
Berkeley, like Locke, believes that it is only through sensation or experience that we can attain any knowledge about the world around us. He goes somewhat further, however, in describing the way these sensations work, claiming that most ideas that Locke would have called "simple" are really complex lists of simple ideas combined into one larger idea -- the idea of an apple, for instance, is a combination of many different ideas regarding…

Positive Discrimination -- Do We Need it?
For centuries, the global community has strived to eliminate discrimination against minority groups. For centuries, women had been emotionally and/or physically abused; they were prohibited from voting and working. Today, they are allowed to work outside the household, but they are still paid less than their male counterparts. Additionally, the responsibility of raising the children and completing the household chores remains heavily preponderant among the female categories.

The women represent one of the most obvious categories of people discriminated against; but they only represent a mere fraction of the overall population subjected to discrimination. And the grounds for the discrimination are multiple, to include anything and everything from gender, race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, political and religious appurtenance, age or disability.

The modern day society is making intense efforts to ensure that discrimination is eliminated -- or at least decreased to the minimum level…

The primary advantage of trade, he argued, was that it opened up new markets for surplus goods and also provided some commodities at less cost from abroad than at home.
Mass perception of free trade in the United States is rarely positive. Immediately, people think of lost jobs and our growing trade deficit instead of the free trade promises of a higher standard of living brought about by the theory of comparative advantage and economies of scale. Therefore, many feel that free trade makes this country worse off.

ibliography

Adam Smith (1723-90)." The Concise Encyclopedia of Economics. Available:

http://www.econlib.org/library/Enc/bios/Smith.html (Accessed 19 Feb. 2005).

David Hume (1711-76)." The Concise Encyclopedia of Economics. Available: http://www.econlib.org/library/Enc/bios/Hume.html (Accessed 19 Feb. 2005).

Mercantalism." Available:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mercantilist (Accessed 19 Feb. 2005)

David Hume (1711-76)." The Concise Encyclopedia of Economics. Available: http://www.econlib.org/library/Enc/bios/Hume.html (Accessed 19 Feb. 2005).

Adam Smith (1723-90)." The Concise Encyclopedia of Economics. Available:

http://www.econlib.org/library/Enc/bios/Smith.html (Accessed 19…

The question arising from this claim is whether evidence exists to prove that there exists an infinitely good, powerful, and wise God where morality naturally emerges. Humes argues that is hard to imagine that an all-good, powerful God exists in this world full of pain and misery. From these claims, one can argue that this insight, or God, has both evil and good, as is present in man if man is in God's image and likeliness.
Immanuel Kant: from the Critique of Pure Reason, the Good Will and the Categorical Imperative, the Postulates of Practical Reason

Kant believes that the vigorous application of same methods of reasoning can yield to an equal development in dealing with the issues of moral philosophy. Kant proposes a list of categories of Freedom in Relation to the concept of good vs. evil. Kant uses logical distinction as the basis for the catalog. Even though…

For John Locke, government "…should be limited to securing the life and property of it citizens"; and government should allow freedom of religion and freedom of conscience. He was opposed to "hereditary monarchy" and supported human rights (especially in his more mature years).

As to how these political theories connect with environmental policy in the U.S.: first, the environmental policies in the U.S. are under attack by the Republicans in the House of Representatives. Their recent bill, H.R. 1, passed in February 2011, contained 19 anti-environmental riders that would "negatively affect air, water, and environmental quality," the Sustainable Energy & Environmental Coalition explained. The right wing in Congress wants to take power away from the Environmental Protection Agency as well. Hume would likely approve of the Tea Party and GOP as to their disavowal of global climate change; he would agree that the U.S. federal government is too big and…

Philosophy
While there is plenty to criticize in the work of Descartes, Locke, and Hume, one cannot justifiably claim that Jose Vasconcelos criticisms of traditional Western views on the nature of knowledge apply to these theorists if only because Vasconcelos' criticisms do not really apply to anything, as his criticisms are largely based on straw men. This is not to say that traditional Western views on the nature of knowledge should be free from criticism, but rather that the problems with these traditional views are more fundamental than Vasconcelos realizes, to the point that Vasconcelos suffers from many of these same issues. Essentially, both Vasconcelos and the previously mentioned authors suffer from a simply ignorance regarding the functioning of the human brain, the nature of consciousness and memory, and the evolutionary processes by which organisms and ideas evolve, with this ignorance born out of an implicit or explicit maintenance of…

philosopher Rene Descartes can be regarded as the supreme rationalist. Descartes believed that only through our rational minds could we fully know God and find evidence of God. Empirical knowledge was not sufficient justification to prove the existence of God because our senses could delude us or be faulty (such as through madness or blindness). In contrast, through rational inquiry we could first demonstrate our own existence on a mental plane: even if all is a delusion regarding the body there must be some 'mind' doing the thinking, rationalized Descartes. And, as the human mind can conceive of a greater intelligence known as God, a level of perfection human beings cannot approach, then within the very structure of our mind lies the evidence of God.
David Hume's Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion, however, takes the opposite, empiricist point-of-view. In the dialogue, three figures known as Demea, Cleanthes, and Philo engage in…

Two belief systems, then -- true believe, and justified true belief (Hauser, 1992).
Humans, however, according to Pierce, turn justified true beliefs into true beliefs by converting them into axioms. Once we have proven something there is no need to prove it again, and we use the part that was proven before to further extend our study and the inquisition of knowledge. And so it becomes necessary to accept things as the truth without proving them at every single moment. However, does not mean that the belief is an unjustified belief, for it again is the conflictual nature of justified against unjustified that, for scholars like Pierce, outpours a reality he can view as "true" (Ibid).

ene' Descartes' purpose was to make humans analyze the introspective nature of being, and to postulate on the veracity of truth as a nature of thought -- if we think it, it is, and…

However saying that'd knows P. But doesn't believe it to be true under all conditions and in all time periods would be a more appropriate and rational way of putting it. We must mention here the principle of Induction which states that: "Unobserved cases and merely possible cases are likely to resemble observed cases" (Bonjour: 57). However when a person refuses to accept this, he is refuting inductive claims. For example, a person might say that all observed cases of grass indicate that it was green in color but there is a chance it might not be so in unobserved cases. Such a person knows something but chooses not to believe it. In such cases, the person would be separately a from B. i.e. cause from result. For example if every time a person touches a hot object, he would feel pain. This means that he knows that touching something…

This is the problem of induction in a nutshell, and it is something that has alternatively been seen as one of the most severe limitations on true knowledge about the world or as a non-issue in any practical terms. If inductive reasoning cannot be trusted, then all past experience and even experimental data is essentially meaningless in predicting the future and there is no logical reason to assume things should occur one way simply because they have occurred that way before. Many have pointed out how silly it would be to go through the world without inductive reasoning -- not being sure if the door would open when the handle is turned, etc. -- but this does not actually address the logical problem of induction.

Edwards Attempted Answer

There have been attempts to address the problem of induction at the fundamental logical level, some of them seeming to come closer…

Philosophy
Nietzsche often identified life itself with "will to power," that is, with an instinct for growth and durability. This concept provides yet another way of interpreting the ascetic ideal, since it is Nietzsche's contention "that all the supreme values of mankind lack this will -- that values which are symptomatic of decline, nihilistic values, are lording it under the holiest names" (Kaufmann 1959). Thus, traditional philosophy, religion, and morality have been so many masks a deficient will to power wears. The sustaining values of estern civilization have been sublimated products of decadence in that the ascetic ideal endorses existence as pain and suffering. Some commentators have attempted to extend Nietzsche's concept of the will to power from human life to the organic and inorganic realms, ascribing a metaphysics of will to power to him (Kaufmann 1959).

The insidious process by which we ascribe attributes to our fictitious consciousness has…

Yes, of course. But Hick too is making an important initial assumption here: He is assuming that a test of human goodness is a necessary part of the universe. But this is only the case if one assumes the presence of a certain type of God -- one that demands that people demonstrate their faith and their ability to make the choices that God wants them to make. If one concurs with this view, then Hick's argument is a sensible and entirely believable one. But if one -- and I do -- rejects this assumption of his, the entire argument falls apart.
Evil exists in the world. This is undeniable. Cruelty also exists, as does simple bad luck. Terrible things happen for many reasons. Both Hume and Hick take the presence of evil in the world as a starting point to discuss the presence or absence of a benign God.…

5. Kant's "Copernican Revolution" in philosophy is in his genius use of the positive aspects of Rationalism (Descartes and so on) and Empiricism (Locke, Berkeley and Hume). How can you argue this out with the help of the "Critique of Pure Reason"?

The human experience of negotiating the universe as it seems to be presented to us is one governed by a great many assumptions. Our education of this process, and in particular our capacity to become adept or even talented in various faculties thereto, is created by experience. In experience, we gain the evolving abilities to relate to objects which we can perceive in our world. However, in order to accomplish this, there are any number of beliefs which must be possessed in us that will create a framework wherein such relating can occur. These beliefs -- and the practical, ideological and physiological experiences which are dependent upon them…

Much as in Mary Shelly's Frankenstein, the Monster has no memory of who he was in parts, only of who he is as a whole distinct person, although that abnormal brain certainly didn't help his feedback system.
Shelly, not our Shelly but Frankenstein's', reminds us that human beings are not just machines and trying to simply piece them together as if the parts are the only concern rarely works out well. However, is Frankenstein the ubermensch that Neitize talked about? If so there are certainly some problems. Of course this is metaphorical, in our experiment Smelly has been pieced together a bit, but more from a teleological standpoint in trying to ascertain the meaning of personality rather than the meaning of life. But in a sense there is also some reality to this metaphor. The scientific breakthroughs in cloning organisms and genetic manipulation, as well as this Smelly situation, certainly…

Wulf, S.J. (2000). "The skeptical life in Hume's political thought. Polity, 33(1), 77.

Wulf uses David Hume's well-known skepticism to advance his concerning the extreme degrees to which philosophy had been taken before returning to less radical modes. He develops material about the antithetical ideas to those investigated here; that is, he puts into a context the ideas of those philosophers who, working at the edge of the intelligible, refused to "accede to the judgment of reason and even their own senses."

ukav, Gary. (1984) the dancing Wu Li masters: An overview of the new physics. New York: Bantam.

One of the first statements ukav makes in this book is that he found, visiting the Lawrence Livermore Laboratory in Berkeley, California, that physics "was not the sterile, boring discipline that I had assumed it to be. It was a rich, profound venture, which had become inseparable from philosophy. Incredibly, no…

self" is difficult to define but usually involves the inner life of the individual, the psychological dimension of human existence as opposed to the outward, physical form. The self is conceived as a creature of consciousness, a mind capable of thought and able to engage in deliberate action. A self is capable of self-consciousness, which means it recognizes its own ability to think and to contain first-person thoughts. The question is, however, is there a Self or not, and if there is, what is its nature? This has been argued in philosophy since the time of the Greeks and has been answered differently by philosophers, religious leaders, and psychologists at different times in history. Leslie Stevenson notes that the "question of the ultimate nature of such mental states is a philosophical problem which is left open by our everyday language about them" (Stevenson 74). This common language is often challenged…

Anarchy, V is for Vendetta: Images of Guy Fawkes and the Creation of Postmodern Anarchism," argues that the image of Guy Fawkes, as well as the word "guy," have become "free floating signifiers" which have been incorporated into modern society in a variety of ways. Originally meant as a means of reinforcing the British state, the remembering of Guy Fawkes has evolved over time to include meanings that were not originally intended. For example, the name "guy" has evolved into a term of varied meaning and "the image of Fawkes has become a major icon in modern British political culture." (Call 2008, 155) In today's world the image of Fawkes has become symbolic of resistance to the increasing intrusion of the modern state into the lives of ordinary people. From a symbol of the power and authority of the British state, the image Guy Fawkes has evolved into a symbol…

Empiricism is fundamentally the belief that all knowledge is eventually resultant from the senses and experience, and that all conceptions can be linked back to data from the senses. John Locke, George Berkeley, and David Hume are considered to be three of the most persuasive empiricists in philosophy. The key aspects that the philosophies of these three empiricists have are that knowledge develops from sensory experience. However, it is imperative to note that each of these three empiricists have their own views (Meyers, 2014).
To begin with, Locke repudiated the prospect of intrinsic ideas and that when an individual is born, his or her mind is blank. Therefore, Locke makes the argument that all notions come from experience and that devoid of such experience, reason does not have a benchmark for differentiating the truth from fallacy. In turn, Locke asserted that the foundation of all ideas stem from sensation and…

associationism remains not only one of the earliest theories of leaning but it also comes across as being one of the most enduring. Basically, associationism holds that association of ideas can be used to explain mental processes. In this text, I will mainly concern myself with associationism as a learning theory. In so doing, I will highlight the main principles associated with the theory while making a mention of three theorists whose contribution towards the development of this theory as we know it today cannot be overstated. Further, this discussion will invoke associationism in explaining mental processes associated learning. I will also attempt to explain how associationism utilizes prior experience in explaining how learning in individuals takes place. Also, I will seek to explain how permanent change in behavior comes about by depicting the application of the theory. Lastly, a number of settings in which learning takes place will be…

For Marx, of course, economics and class conflicts were the base of society, and social change proceeded through revolutions, such as the French, American and English evolutions against feudalism in the 17th and 18th Centuries. In the future, capitalism would be overthrown by a socialist revolution, starting with the most advanced industrial economies in the West (Greene, p. 200). Comte argued that sociology should be concerned with the "laws of social evolution," though, and that science and technology had undermined traditional religion and the feudal social order. Society evolved in three distinct stages, theological, metaphysical and positive, with positivism representing urban, industrial society (Greene, p. 204).
Conclusion

Plato, Augustine and Descartes were the most important dualist philosophers in history, and all of them valued the mind and immortal soul far more than the physical body or the material universe. This view was dominant until the era of the Scientific evolution…

Ideals of Fantasy and Reality According to Descarte and Hume
This paper considers what is real and what is fantasy by understanding the ideals of philosophers such as Descarte and Hume. Bibliography cites seven sources.

The reality of croquet and the ever moving hoops

To become like Alice in wonderland, to seek that which only exists in the mind of our imagination is the dream of every person to bring forth what is not real and make it real. The mind is a complex place, by understanding the attitudes and aspects of individuals we are able to understand that the imagination is fuelled by the Will and that the will is fed by the imagination.

When looking at the world as if it was a croquet game in Alice and wonderland we can argue quite easily that life is a mutable role in the ideology of the philosophers, by looking…

Then present one argument that demonstrates a strength or a weakness.

The strength of Kant's critique of reason and its excesses can be seen in an examination of Plato's famous Theory of Ideas. For Plato, the only suitable instrument for knowledge of the real world is reason and understanding. He defines understanding as the highest activity of the soul and reason as the second-highest activity of the soul. (Republic, 511c) These activities are necessary to glimpse the things of the real word, the actual Forms contained in the world of Forms. (Republic, 509d). For Plato, true Knowledge was the Knowledge of these real things. (Republic, 509e). For him, all Knowledge was Knowledge of something that exists because what does not exist is nothing, of which it is impossible to have Knowledge. (Republic, 477e)

Through the proposition that knowledge and opinion are different capacities, Plato infers that knowledge and opinion must…

Moral Skepticism and Knowledge
Moral Skepticism and Moral Knowledge

Morality is a much debated philosophical idea, wherein the arguments range from ethical egoism being the perfect sample of moral ethics to altruism being the perfect -- and otherwise opposite -- viewpoint. Both ideas have strong followings, and ethical egoism along is broadened to even more branches within philosophical studies. There is still much reconciliation to be done between the various problems of philosophical thought and ethical egoism or lack thereof.

Ethical Egoism

Ethical egoism is a particular form of egoism where one who is moral "ought" to do what is in one's self-interest. The morality behind egoism generally points toward the idea of self-interest; that a moral being's moral path is by focusing on one's self. This type of egoism should not be mistaken for psychological egoism, however. Psychological egoism makes a claim that beings act only in their self-interest.…

Immortality of the soul- many philosophers, laureates and scientists have delved upon the subject in both the earlier times and the present time. However, the logic of the immortality of the soul, whether it is true or not that is the soul being mortal, has not been justified till yet. Plato and Socrates have justified what they believe, Kant also rationalizes the existence of God and the immortality of soul, however, and the debate is still on as to whether the soul is mortal or immortal. In this paper, I would develop the thesis on the premise that the soul is mortal and relatively would give explanations as has been given by Plato, Socrates, David Hume and Immanuel Kant as well as Christian and Islamic religious views. Before I embark on explaining what different scholars have said about the existence of God and the Immortality of soul, let us first…

"
Defenses against it may be equally inconclusive, but in their fertility they at least promise a solution some day.

Bibliography

dams, Marilyn McCord. Horrendous Evils and the Goodness of God. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1999.

Belliotti, Raymond a. Roman Philosophy and the Good Life. Plymouth: Lexington Books, 2009.

DeRose, Keith. "Plantinga, Presumption, Possibility, and the Problem of Evil," Canadian Journal of Philosophy 21 (1991), 497-512.

Draper, Paul. "Probabilistic rguments from Evil," Religious Studies 28 (1992), 303-17.

Dueck, a.C. Between Jerusalem and thens: Ethical Perspectives on Culture, Religion, and Psychotherapy. Grand Rapids, MI: Baker, 1995.

Ferreira, M. Jamie. "Surrender and Paradox: Imagination in the Leap." In Kierkegaard Contra Contemporary Christendom, edited by Daniel W. Conway, 142-67. New York: Routledge, 2002.

Griffin, David Ray. God, Power, and Evil: Process Theodicy. Louisville: Westminster Press, 2004.

Hick, John. "The 'Vale of Soul-Making' Theodicy." In the Problem of Evil: Reader, edited by Mark…

Negotiation Skills
A High Impact Negotiations Model: An Answer to the Limitations of the Fisher, Ury Model of Principled Negotiations

This study aims to discover the ways in which blocked negotiations can be overcome by testing the Fisher, Ury model of principled negotiation against one of the researcher's own devising, crafted after studying thousands of negotiation trainees from over 100 multinational corporations on 5 continents. It attempts to discern universal applications of tools, skills, and verbal and non-verbal communication techniques that may assist the negotiator in closing deals with what have been "traditionally" perceived as "difficult people." This study concludes that there are no such "difficult people," but rather only unprepared negotiators. The study takes a phenomenological approach to negotiations, with the researcher immersing himself in the world of negotiation training from 2012-14, for several major multinational corporations, intuiting the failings of the negotiators with whom he comes in contact,…

rmstrong arguing mind . brain disticntion a distinction a difference (akin a distinction a kleenex a tissue)? Does adequately explain human conduct?
rmstrong - mind theories

There is much controversy regarding the difference between mind and brain, as while some support the belief that the mind has nothing to do with the brain because there is nothing physical about the former's functioning, others consider that the mind and the brain are basically the same thing. ccording to ustralian philosopher David Malet rmstrong, it is safe to say that the mind and the body are one and the same, particularly when considering each of them to be "that in which mental processes occur' or 'that which has mental states'" (rmstrong, 1993, p. 1). People are typically inclined to believe that the mind is not physical because it is seen (through history) as an entity that has no physical shape, being the…

Skepticism
Can person skeptical, limits? Is doubt? Does a person obligation ethical moral reasoning examining beliefs. Are beliefs possessed challenged shown false? How skeptic respond claim a belief doubted? Identify specific belief present response skeptic.

Philosophical skepticism: Its limits

Some philosophers have asserted that it is impossible to know anything and adopt a position of radical skepticism. "Philosophical skepticism attempts to render doubtful every member of a class of propositions that we think falls within our ken" (Klein 2011). An example of philosophical skepticism is manifested in Descartes' Meditations in which the philosopher begins by doubting everything. How does he know, Descartes asks, that the world is not a dream? It is widely accepted that persons may be subject to delusions and cannot accurately perceive reality, but what is to assure us this is not true of the entire world? "Visual experience is in fact notoriously unreliable about certain matters.…

Plato and the Platypus
Philosophers in the Enlightenment era would come up with various new means to popularize ideas. Denis Diderot conceived the first encyclopedia in this period, which was an attempt to systematize all world knowledge in an accessible way. But also, in another innovation, Voltaire would offer as a refutation of the optimistic philosophy of Leibniz -- which held that "this is the best of all possible worlds" -- a new form of philosophical argument: the extended comedy (Cathcart and Klein, 17). Voltaire's short book Candide is essentially an extended refutation of Leibniz's view of God (or perhaps any view of God), but it makes its points through satirical humor. In some sense, Thomas Cathcart and Daniel Klein are following in the footsteps of Voltaire by attempting to shed light on philosophical ideas through the medium of humor in their work Plato and a Platypus alk Into A…

He states that "there is never, within Scripture itself, an attempt to prove the existence of God; if proving God's existence were demanded of all believers; one might expect to find at least one of the believers in the Bible discussing theistic arguments." (Clark, unknown). However, Clark does acknowledge that Scripture contains many examples of God proving that He, rather than the false Gods worshipped by people during biblical times, is the true God.
Clark believes this is because the Bible was written during a time when virtually all people believed in some type of god, and that is ill-advised, perhaps impossible, to import that type of approach into a contemporary context. Because Scripture was not written for a modern audience, Clark seems to conclude that Scripture cannot provide adequate support for a modern apologetic argument.

Critical eflection

Clark's argument is logically unpersuasive. That does not mean that Clark's argument…

Social dissent and unrest should not be the result of multiculturalism, the authors point out, but nonetheless those are the social realities, in many instances, of the new global picture. There is now, like it or not, a "blurring of cultural borderlines," the authors report; and as a result, the notion of culture within the word "multiculturalism" no longer refers to habits and customs of a people in anthropological terms. Rather, "culture" in the term "multiculturalism" alludes to race, creed, sexual orientation, gender, and lifestyles of various and divers groups within the greater culture.

A very poignant quote is offered in the conclusion of the editorial, a quote which cries out to be read to those reporting on, studying and/or dealing with today's dramatic cultural changes in estern societies; it is a statement by Aijza Ahmad, who reflects the perspective of "the less-well-to-do colonial states," according to the editorial. "It…

Jean-Francois Lyotard (the Postmodern condition: A Knowledge eport 1979) describes postmodernism in the context of nature of social bond. He argues that due to the advent of the technology and with the invention of computer, information has been more restricted in the form of procedures and program. According to him some one must have access to all the information to check whether the decisions are madder correctly. He discuss in this paper about the language games which are gaining importance day by day as the communication is becoming so prominent and efficient. We can see the connecting point between Lyotard and Kuhn as well as Popper which also agree that truth is language dependent and textual interpretation vary from person to person so whole truth of knowledge is not absolutely conveyed.

PESONAL EACTION and CITIQUE:

Postmodernism seems to be overwhelmingly push everything into vagueness. The only thing according to postmodernism…

Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. This invocation, accompanying the sign of the cross, marks the beginning and end of every Roman Catholic prayer. It has become synonymous with Catholicism -- a celebration of the crucifix as representative of the lessed Trinity. While, every good Catholic takes this Triumvirate for granted, it is left to theological scholars like Jurgen Moltmann to dissect and analyze the salient features of the Trinity. Is the Trinity a Pneumatological or Christological entity? Is it a combination of the two? Where is God in the scheme of Moltmann's thesis? The theoditic question challenged the omnipotence, omnipresence and omniscience of God in his relationship with man. Is this question revisited in relation to Jesus Christ as the carrier of the Holy Spirit during his life on earth? Moltmann presents a clear interpretation of the relationship between Christ and the Holy Spirit…