The Enlightenment and Hume’s Empiricism
The Secularization of Reason
The modern era witnessed the secularization of reason, becoming people-oriented and independent from religion.
The Limits of Reason
Enlightened thinkers acknowledged the limitations of reason. Immanuel Kant’s transcendental philosophy critically analyzed these limits.
The German Enlightenment
Specific conditions influenced Kant’s philosophy:
- Germany’s fragmented political structure, with a weak bourgeoisie, limited focus to theory of knowledge and ethics.
- Pietism, a Protestant sect emphasizing personal reflection and virtue, influenced religious thought, along with mystical writings like those of Emanuel Swedenborg.
- Dogmatic rationalism dominated German universities. David Hume’s writings challenged the scientific status of metaphysics.
- The Sturm und Drang (“Storm and Stress”) movement emphasized passion over abstract reason.
Hume’s Treatise on Human Nature
Hume’s A Treatise of Human Nature, summarized in An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding, championed radical empiricism. He prioritized perceptions derived from experience, categorized as impressions (vivid and intense) and ideas (copies of impressions). Ideas could be simple or complex, associated by similarity, contiguity, and cause-and-effect. Hume’s “copy principle” asserted that every idea originates from a sensory impression.
Two Kinds of Knowledge
- Relations of Ideas: Applicable to formal sciences (logic, mathematics), a priori, universally valid.
- Matters of Fact: Characteristic of empirical sciences, a posteriori, requiring experiential proof, not necessarily true.
Hume’s Critique of Rationalism
Causality
Hume questioned the idea of necessary connection or cause. He argued that no sensory impression corresponds to “cause,” but rather custom or habit of observing regular occurrences. Causal connections projected into the future lack experiential basis. Belief in causality stems from the imagined regularity of nature.
Substance
Hume argued that experience reveals only sensory impressions, not substance. Belief in an external world is instinctual, not rational.
Self
Hume viewed the self as a stream of perceptions, not a fixed entity. The notion of a unified “I” is a product of imagination.
God
Lacking a sensory basis, the idea of God is beyond rational knowledge. While a natural tendency to believe in a higher being exists, its existence is unprovable. Hume favored natural religion over revealed theology.
Hume’s Moderate Skepticism
Hume’s epistemology culminates in moderate skepticism. Knowledge derives from experience, but transcends its limits.