Hume’s Emotivism, Aquinas’ Five Ways, and Kant’s Critique of Pure Reason
Hume’s Emotivism
Hume’s ethics, often called emotivism, stems from emotion. Hume argues that reason is not the primary factor in ethical decision-making. Instead, he emphasizes the role of passions or feelings. He defines passion as a natural inclination towards certain feelings or thoughts that we find agreeable or disagreeable. When we encounter an action, our sense of approval or disapproval determines whether we perceive it as good or bad. Hume posits that there is a natural instinct to choose what is agreeable, and he believes that one of the fundamental human passions is sympathy. This quality encourages understanding and the sharing of feelings, enabling us to coexist. Hume asserts that sympathy is a universal human trait. However, some critics argue that Hume’s system may lead to skepticism, despite his reputation as a proponent of truth.
Saint Thomas Aquinas: The Five Ways
Saint Thomas Aquinas presents five arguments, known as the “Five Ways,” to demonstrate the existence of God. These arguments share common features: they begin with empirical observations, rely on principles of causality, and assert the impossibility of an infinite regress of causes, ultimately concluding with the existence of God.
The Five Ways Summarized
Motion
Everything that is in motion is moved by something else. This chain of movers cannot be infinite, so there must be a First Mover, which is not moved by anything else. This First Mover is God.
Efficient Cause
There is an order of efficient causes in the world. Nothing can be the efficient cause of itself, as it would have to exist prior to itself, which is impossible. Therefore, there must be a First Efficient Cause, which is God.
Contingency
We observe that things come into existence and cease to exist. If everything were contingent, then at some point, nothing would have existed. But things do exist, so there must be a Necessary Being that has always existed, and this being is God.
Degrees of Perfection
We observe varying degrees of goodness, truth, and nobility in things. These degrees imply the existence of a maximum, a most perfect being. This most perfect being is God.
Governance of Things
We see that natural bodies, which lack intelligence, act in an orderly manner towards an end. This order suggests the existence of an Intelligent Being that directs them, and this being is God.
Evidence of God’s Existence
The Five Ways are arguments for the proof of God’s existence and share common points: a starting point in experience, argumentation based on causality, the impossibility of reaching an infinite series of beings, and all leading to the determination of God’s existence.
Kant’s Critique of Pure Reason
In his Critique of Pure Reason, Immanuel Kant explores different faculties of knowledge. He begins with the transcendental aesthetic, which deals with the faculty of sensibility. He investigates whether mathematics can be considered a science. He then moves to the transcendental analytic, which examines the faculty of understanding and intellectual knowledge, questioning whether physics can be considered a science. Finally, he analyzes the transcendental dialectic, which focuses on the faculty of reason and rational knowledge, asking whether metaphysics can be considered a science.
Transcendental Aesthetics
Transcendental Aesthetics deals with the power of sensitivity and sensitive knowledge, determining if mathematics is a science. For Kant, all knowledge is a synthesis between matter and form. Matter is received through the senses and depends on sensory experience (a posteriori). Form is a priori (prior to experience), universal, and necessary. Kant argues that not all our knowledge comes from experience. Matter and form together make scientific knowledge possible. Matter provides the empirical content of science, while form gives it a universal character. Sensible knowledge is a synthesis between sensations and space-time, which are a priori. Kant explains that we can think of space and time a priori. He then questions whether mathematics consists of synthetic a priori judgments. These judgments are synthetic because they relate to sensory experience, and they are a priori because they are universal and necessary, based on space and time.