David Hume’s Philosophy: Key Concepts and Principles
Enlightened World
In the preface, Hume manifests as an enlightened thinker. The compendium is intended to communicate his message, illustrating and explaining the “main argument of the book.” He advocates for a philosophy for the good of the people. As an enlightened thinker, he struggles against superstition, religious fanaticism, and intolerance, as well as any philosophical doctrine that somehow encourages and supports such dogmatism.
Science of Nature
Just as Newton had applied the analytic-inductive method in the field of nature, Hume wants to apply it to the science of man. Hume wants to unify all the sciences upon a fundamental science: the science of human nature. The knowledge of human nature must have the same rigor and method as Newton’s natural science if we are to create a true science of man.
Argument
If we can achieve true knowledge of man, we enter the field of logic, morality, aesthetics, and politics. What characterizes this science is less certain principles than an attitude of research.
Anatomy of Human Nature
The scientific description that Hume seeks to make of human nature is twofold: an anatomy and a philosophy of human nature. The first is a mental geography, which describes the various parts and powers of the mind, mental contents, and powers. The second describes the various mechanisms of mental dynamics.
Logic
This is the science that deals with analyzing the transactions whereby reason, through sense impressions, obtains ideas. The instrument of the sciences is the study of human cognitive faculties.
Morality
This deals with human feelings as the foundation of moral trials. “Moral good and evil are distinguishable by our feelings, not by our reason.” (This theory is called moral emotivism).
Aesthetics
This is about the tastes of humans.
Politics
This considers men as united in society and dependent on one another.
Proof
This belongs exclusively to the realm of relationships between ideas and not questions of fact. The show provides a kind of certainty that Hume properly called knowledge.
Proof
This is not a proper demonstration or demonstrative certainty but a certainty of life, provided by the intensity of that feeling that is believing. Hume defines it as “an argument from experience that leaves no room for doubt or argument.” Although I have no demonstrative certainty that fire will burn because certainty is itself demonstrative of the relationships between ideas, I am certain vitally (proof) that it will, without a doubt.
Belief
Belief is not knowledge but a vital assent based on the habit of seeing a phenomenon that follows another. It is a feeling that develops an idea with the intensity of an impression and generates evidence or probability.
Feeling
a) It is the intensity or vividness (feeling) that comes with belief and reveals the future effect (burning) as something so real and clear as if it were an impression and thus generates a test. It is a degree of intensity, a design purer than a figment of the imagination.
b) Feeling is also the foundation of moral judgments. A feeling of approval indicates to me that the action is good, and a sense of disapproval tells me it is bad.
Custom or Habit
Psychological is a factor underlying causal inference as a contiguous and regular succession of events and generates not science but belief. The habit of seeing that heat expands bodies leads us to believe it always will. Properly, we do not know that heat expands a piece of iron, but we think it will happen. Habit is the main guide of man.
Innate
Locke had focused his efforts on demonstrating that no mental content (an idea in his terminology) is innate: every idea has its origin in experience. Hume admits in the text that there is innate content: while all ideas derive from impressions, they arise in the soul from unknown causes. Similarly, the associative mechanism of such content, imagination, is a natural or innate character.