Saint Anselm and David Hume: Key Philosophical Insights
**Saint Anselm: Background and Key Concepts**
**Scholasticism**
Scholasticism designates the education prevalent in the Middle Ages, primarily in monastic schools. It involved efforts to create a Christian philosophy, raising questions about the relationship between faith and reason. Two prominent doctrines within scholasticism were Augustinianism and Aristotelianism. Saint Anselm is considered the first philosopher of the Middle Ages, heavily influenced by Saint Augustine.
**The Ontological Argument**
Saint Anselm is renowned for his demonstration of God’s existence, known as the ontological argument. This argument reflects the harmonious relationship between faith and reason. It aims to demonstrate that God, as revealed, exists both in the mind and in reality.
**Structure of the Argument**
- A) Statement of the Problem: The argument seeks to demonstrate God’s existence through simple knowledge.
- B) Argumentation:
- C) Starting Point: It is foolish to accept that what exists in the understanding does not exist in reality.
- D) Second Step: The maximum conceivable must exist not only in the understanding but also in reality.
- E) Conclusion: There exists, both in understanding and in reality, something than which nothing greater can be thought.
Therefore, God is the being greater or more perfect than can be thought, a being that exists not only in thought but also in reality.
**Intention of Saint Anselm**
Saint Anselm sought to explain the existence of God and to establish that faith is above reason. For him, faith is the starting point of philosophy.
**Criticism of the Argument**
The ontological argument was criticized and not universally accepted as correct. Critics, like Kant, argued that existence is not a perfection.
**David Hume**
**Theory of Knowledge**
Hume addresses the origin and classification of our ideas. He adopts a phenomenalist approach, stating that we do not know objects as they are in themselves but only as perceptions, or phenomena, that appear in consciousness. Perceptions are subjective and come to mind through the senses, impulses, or reflection.
**Types of Perceptions**
- Impressions: Intense, vivid sensations that affect the external senses.
- Ideas: Weak, pale internal perceptions that affect the internal senses and understanding. Ideas are copies of impressions.
The difference between feeling and thinking, or between impressions and ideas, lies in the degree of force and vivacity with which they impress the spirit.
**Simple and Complex Ideas: The Laws of Association of Ideas**
Both ideas and impressions can be simple or complex.
- Simple Ideas: Indivisible perceptions.
- Complex Ideas: Formed by combining simple ideas. This union is governed by rules such as resemblance, contiguity in time and space, and cause-and-effect relationships.
The force of attraction between combined ideas is proportional to the distance or proximity between the associated ideas. This law is modeled on Newtonian physics. Hume’s classification of knowledge leads to radical empiricism. To determine the truth of an idea, we must identify the corresponding impression. If there is no corresponding impression, the idea is a fiction. The limits of knowledge are impressions.
**Classification of Sciences**
- Introduction: Truths of reason are necessary and analytical, established a priori, and their opposite is impossible. Contingent truths of reason are possible, and their opposite is also possible. Propositions about relationships are true but say nothing about what “is.” True propositions are based on the principle of non-contradiction. Propositions based on experience are merely probable.
- Classification:
- 1. Deductive Sciences: Deal with truths of reason and are concerned with certain relations between ideas. They are based on the principles of identity and are deduced a priori. Examples include algebra and geometry.
- 2. Natural Sciences: Deal with issues related to temporal relationships. They are only valid if space is limited to past experiences. We cannot be certain that the future will be identical to the past. Therefore, we can only attain probability, not certainty. The truth or falsity of their statements can only come from experience, but their generalization is invalid because experience only provides information about particular events. Their laws are neither necessary nor universal.
- 3. Practical Sciences: Include ethics and politics.
**Critique of the Idea of Causation**
Natural sciences explain the relationship of causality.
- A) The Idea of Cause and Knowledge of Facts: To determine the validity of an idea, we must identify the associated impression. Knowledge is limited to impressions and memories. We cannot know future impressions. The certainty that something will occur is based on causal inference.
- B) Causation and Necessary Connection: The idea of cause is the basis of inferences about things we have no impression of. The relationship between cause and effect is conceived as a necessary connection. If the cause occurs, the effect will necessarily follow.
- C) Critique of the Idea of Necessary Connection: A true idea corresponds to an impression, but we have no impression of the idea of necessary connection. Since our knowledge of the future can only be justified by the necessary relation between cause and effect, we do not know what will happen in the future; we only believe it. Our knowledge is a supposition or belief. Certainty comes from the habit of observing past events. Habit, not reasoning, is the basis of belief and inference about facts. Scientific knowledge is not necessary but probable.
**Critique of the Ideas of Metaphysics**
- Preliminary: Belief in unobserved facts is based on a psychological mechanism that allows us to live. Causal inference is only acceptable between impressions.
- A) External Reality: It is common to believe in the existence of bodies as different from or outside of impressions. Extra-mental reality is considered the cause of our impressions. However, this inference is invalid because it goes from an impression to a fact that is not an impression. The phenomenon consists in the belief in a reality different from our impressions.
- B) The Idea of Substance: Substance is a basic concept of rationalism. Hume denies the knowledge of substance. When we see an object, we see a series of impressions matched to the association of simple ideas. Although we give a name to that substance, no reality exists concerning it. Names designate collections of simple ideas.
- C) The Existence of God: The principle of causation is used to substantiate the affirmation of God’s existence. This belief is unjustified because it goes from an impression to God, of whom we have no impression. We do not know where impressions of God come from.
- D) The Self and Personal Identity: The existence of the self was considered the result of immediate intuition. However, for Hume, the existence of the self is not justified by supposed intuition, as there is only intuition of ideas and impressions. The self is not an impression but that to which our ideas and impressions refer. If the idea of the self originated from an impression, that impression should remain unchanged throughout life. However, there is no constant and invariable impression; sensations succeed each other. Therefore, there is no substance other than the self, like impressions.