David Hume Reflection Paper

Have you ever wondered about the world beyond its original state? How we know that electricity produces a light bulb to light up or causes the sort of energy necessary to produce heat? But in the first place, what is electricity? Nor have we seen it and not we encountered it; however, we know what it can do, hence its effects. To help us better understand the notion of cause and effect, David Hume, an empiricist and skepticist philosopher, proposed the that there is no such thing as causation. In his theory, he explained the deliberate relationship between the cause and effect, and how the two factors are not interrelated. Think of it this way: sometimes we end up failing to light a match even though it was struck. The previous day, it lit up, but today it did not. Why? Hume’s theory regarding causation helps us comprehend matters of cause and effect, and how we encounter the effects in our daily lives, without the cause being necessary. According to Hume, since we never experience the cause of something, we cannot use inductive reasoning to conclude that one event causes another. In other words, causal necessity (the cause and effect being related in some way or another) seems to be subjective, as if it solely exists in our minds and not in the object itself.

What does it mean to have wisdom? Some may say to be wise is to have enough knowledge and good judgment to make well thought out life decisions. Wisdom is a common term mentioned throughout out the New Testament Epistles and the entire Bible. The Bible has a lot to say about wisdom and knowledge. It talks about ways to be wise and ways to be foolish. Through out the Bible there seems to be different types of wisdom and it is described in different ways. Analyzing all types of wisdom and knowledge will help us decide what the Bible means to be wise.

David Hume is one of the world’s most well-known and relevant philosophers, in his time and still to this day. In one of his most famous writings, An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding, he dedicates a whole chapter to exploring the validity of miracles, based on his own premise (That they defy the laws of nature), a chapter so large, it is separated into two parts. Exploration of Miracles is a large topic for philosophical discussion as it has caught the attention and caused the works of many of the world’s most famous philosophers, such as David Hume, Richard Swinburne and Peter Atkins.

In Chapter two Edward Humes writes about New York in the 1890’s. He shares with us how the people of this time period handled the trash condition. He explains how the trash was so severe that pigs could dispose of garbage for eating purposed. People were using them like a part of a solution to get rid of trash little by little by letting the pigs eat the trash but at the same time using them as meat providers. He also mentions the different methods that people throughout the years came up with to dispose of trash and failed as proper solutions. Some of these methods we still use today, like burning trash, burying trash, even building more landfills. However as Humes says about landfills they eventually get filled up. The thing that surprised

In chapter 11 Humes focuses on one of the greenest cities in the USA Portland, Oregon. In Portland everyone’s main focus is being green in some parts of the city there are more bicycle parking spots then there are parking spots for cars. Coming from a small time in Kentucky this is something I’m most definitely not familiar with since we have no bicycle parking spots. Humes talks about the many different ways to get around the city that doesn’t require a car, and the use of gasoline you can ride a bike, walk, or one of the cable cars. These are all green ways to help the environment while still allowing you to get out and interact with the city. Even with all of the green acts that our done in this city its still hard not to have trash and

"All of it is clear to a person who has understanding and right to those who have acquired knowledge." (Proverbs 8:6-9)

Proverbs 2:6-8, "It is the Lord who gives wisdom; from him come knowledge and understanding. He provides help and protection for righteous, honest men. He protects those who treat others fairly, and guards those who are devoted to him."

Rationalism: a belief or theory that opinions and actions should be based on reason and knowledge rather than on religious belief or emotional response.

The bible says in “Proverbs 1: 5 A wise man will hear, and will increase learning; and a man of understanding shall attain unto wise counsels.” So let us not walk in foolishness and seek God’s wisdom in everything that we do because it says this as well about a fool in “ Proverbs 1: 22 How long ye simple ones, will ye love simplicity? And the scorners delight in their scorning, and fools hate knowledge. So let us chose wisdom and not folly and trust God.

     Knowledge is gained only through experience, and experiences only exist in the mind as individual units of thought. This theory of knowledge belonged to David Hume, a Scottish philosopher. Hume was born on April 26, 1711, as his family’s second son. His father died when he was an infant and left his mother to care for him, his older brother, and his sister. David Hume passed through ordinary classes with great success, and found an early love for literature. He lived on his family’s estate, Ninewells, near Edinburgh. Throughout his life, literature consumed his thoughts, and his life is little more than his works. By the age of 40, David Hume had been employed twice and had failed at the family careers,

In explaining Hume’s critique of the belief in miracles, we must first understand the definition of a miracle. The Webster Dictionary defines a miracle as: a supernatural event regarded as to define action, one of the acts worked by Christ which revealed his divinity an extremely remarkable achievement or event, an unexpected piece of luck. Therefore, a miracle is based on one’s perception of past experiences, what everyone sees. It is based on an individuals own reality, and the faith in which he/she believes in, it is based on interior events such as what we are taught, and exterior events, such as what we hear or see first hand. When studying Hume’s view of a miracle, he interprets or defines a miracle as such; a miracle is a

Firstly, Hume effectively tackles the commonly held assertion that humans are purely rational creatures that successfully implement reason in every situation. Hume concedes

To begin with the question of rationalism versus empiricism, it is important to understand, first, what it is that rationalists argue. This school of thought infers that all knowledge comes from within, an innate source that

Epistemology- Epistemology is the division between empiricism and rationalism in different ways of thinking about how we reason and rationalise that knowledge and how it is reliable and certain, epistemology gives us our professional theories, beliefs and practices and how we differentiate between what is true and false. (Scott, 2014).

The ultimate question that Hume seems to be seeking an answer to is that of why is that we believe what we believe. For most of us the answer is grounded in our own personal experiences and can in no way be justified by a common or worldly assumption. Our pasts, according to Hume, are reliant on some truths which we have justified according to reason, but in being a skeptic reason is hardly a solution for anything concerning our past, present or future. Our reasoning according to causality is slightly inhibited in that Hume suggests that it is not that we are not able to know anything about future events based on past experiences, but rather that we are just not rationally justified in believing those things that