REASON- Humes Fork

Question 1

In what book does Hume propose his idea

Answer 1

An enquiry concerning human understanding, Hume gives an account of knowledge in relation to reason and experience

Question 2

What does Hume divide human understanding into

Answer 2

Relations of ideas and matters of fact

Question 3

What are the features of matters of fact

Answer 3

• can only be derived from experiencing how the world is
• it may seem obvious that most objects fall downwards or that fire buts but we only know this through experience
• Hume claims that knowledge in this area consists of a) observing how the world is and b) generalising from experience (induction)
• can never be certain. We may feel absolutely certain that the sun will rise tomorrow but it may not

Question 4

What are the features of the relations of ideas

Answer 4

• revealed by reason, concern logics, maths and the relations between concepts (although sense experience is needed to form concepts)
• the opposite of a true relations of ideas is not just false but is a contradiction( this enables them to be proven by deduction)
• they do not depend on how the world actually is. 2+3 will always be 5- there is no need to check this by observing facts
• because these truths are not derived from observing the world, Hume claims they do not tell us anything new about the world

Question 5

What type of philosophers did Humes fork have consequences for

Answer 5

The writings of rationalist philosophers like Descartes as it suggests that substantial knowledge (not true by definition) cannot be generated by reason alone. Synthetic a priori knowledge isn’t possible. Reason can only show what’s true by definition, substantial knowledge has to be learnt through experience.
Rationalists explained the world through reason
However, reason may help us deduce some further elements and truths but reason itself cannot tell us about the world