In Hume’s 1748 publication: An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding , Section 10 is titled Of Miracles. This section is an extended argument against the veracity of miracles. In response to Hume, Richard Price published Four Dissertations in 1768. In Dissertation IV, The Importance of Christianity, the Nature of Historical Evidence and Miracles, Price outlines a Bayesian argument against Hume’s conclusions that miracles cannot ever occur. My thesis is that Price’s Bayesian argument, arguably the…

only focus on the limitation of pure reasoning, compare both David Hume and Rene Descartes’ views of knowledge, and decide whose belief works better to attain genuine knowledge in this paper. In the book “An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding”, David Hume specifically clarifies on how moral reasoning (induction) works in the knowledge of cause and effect and he shares on its limitation. Accordingly, he writes “[i]n reality, all arguments from experience are founded on the similarity, which we discover…

“Esse est percipi”. To be is to perceive, and to exist and to be perceived are one and the same. In the philosophical work of “A Treatise Concerning the Principles of Human Knowledge”, this one of the most famous principles which made Bishop George Berkeley one of the early modern period’s most acclaimed polymaths. Berkeley was a Bishop closely affiliated to the Anglican Church and a staunch critic of other philosophers of the past such as Rene Descartes and John Locke. Though initially impressed…

inference to the best explanation. To it another way, he means credible belief is possible and genuine knowledge could be inaccurate. In the “section IV- Sceptical Doubts concerning the Operation of the Understanding” part two of the book “An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding”, David Hume intends to clarify about how induction (moral reasoning) works in the knowledge of cause and effect. Accordingly, he shares “[i]n reality, all arguments from experience are founded on the similarity, which we discover…

In his Enquiry Concerning the Principles of Morals, Hume offers up a number of virtues and qualities which are valued for any of four reasons: they are useful to the individual, useful to society, agreeable to the individual, or agreeable to society. One of the qualities which Hume elucidates is justice. This quality, however, according to Hume, is valued solely for its usefulness and not upon any agreeability to anyone. Hume explains his position thusly. Hume imagines a scenario in which all…

Comparing Knowledge in Descartes’ Meditations on First Philosophy and Hume’s An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding, Rationalists would claim that knowledge comes from reason or ideas, while empiricists would answer that knowledge is derived from the senses or impressions. The difference between these two philosophical schools of thought, with respect to the distinction between ideas and impressions, can be examined in order to determine how these schools determine the source…

The Medium to Grasp the Future In Section IV of An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding by David Hume, Hume provides argument that will outline that any conclusions about the future based on past experience are limited to being just probable suppositions, because all arguments that claim to know the future impacts of an object’s “secret powers” (Hume 21) are based in assumption. By “secret powers” (Hume 21), Hume means those abilities of an object, such as a loaf of bread, to “support… a human…

The Principle of Mortality “ a responsible moral principle, whether applied to acts or rules. How our demeanor should be of moral concern to us. Our moral rules claim that a pleasant society is preferred over an troubled society.” Conforming to the rules, as a society we are rewarded and penalized when we don’t conform. Not considering the right for transgender students to facilitate locker rooms in which correlate to their inner gender-identity is conforming with society making it a pleasant society…

perceptions. If truth is understood as the adequacy between the image and the object, then it is impossible to infer that there is a true world of objects since the only evidence. From this fundamental point, human reason loses its contingency in moral issues and decision making, letting feelings come to the first place. Hume emphasises the utility of knowledge as opposed to its correctness and suggests that morality begins with feeling rather than thought. In this case, Hume also believes that sympathy…

that one, simply put, believes, and fiction encompasses the thoughts that are not believed. These definitions seem redundant when viewed as so, but further examination of Hume’s framework sheds light on the meaning of what he attempts to establish concerning belief. In order to fully understand the difference between belief and fiction, Hume’s definition of thought must first be studied. Hume splits perceptions of the mind into two sections – impressions and ideas – and the distinctions between…