Descartes Vs Hume Essay Research Paper Exploring

Descartes Vs. Hume Essay, Research Paper

Exploring the Epistemology.s of Rene Descartes and David Hume

Beginning in the 17th century, traditional ideas were being questioned by

the new beginnings of science. Although many of the accomplishments during this

.scientific revolution. were in astronomy and mechanics, very important advances

along the whole borders of knowledge were also taking place. The revival of

skepticism, brought about by these new concepts, had many philosophers seeking

answers to questions such as: Do we know anything at all, and do the sciences give

us knowledge of reality. Rene Descartes, whom many consider to be the father of

modern philosophy, sought to kill skepticism for good. He gave his Cartesian quest

for certainty the center stage in his epistemology, or theory of knowledge.

Following Descartes, later in the 18th century, David Hume also broke away from

the religious dogma of the day to explain knowledge on a non theological basis.

However, His epistemology dismisses Cartesian methods as both unworkable and

barren. Instead, he adopts his own theories which counters the ideas of his of

predecessor, and casts a different view on the levels of certainty humans can

obtain.

The Content and Objects of Knowledge–Rene Descartes

According to Descartes, we each contain within ourselves the criterion for truth

and knowledge. Although he does not reject the idea of God as a creator, he believed that

the responsibility of obtaining knowledge rests on the individual and no longer on

medieval ideals such as priest, popes, or kings. Descartes believed that in order to obtain

knowledge, there must be a rational method for reaching the truth, and the use of the

senses, or any experience can not be a reliable source. He also believed that this rationality

is universal, and therefore, the same for every individual. He believed that a priori, or

innate ideas existed within the soul, and in order to test their certainty, his reasoning

method, referred to as methodological doubt, must be used as a tool for distinguishing

ignorance from knowledge.

As founder of the Cartesian coordinates, Descartes believed that geometry

represented the ideal source of knowledge. Intending to extend the Cartesian certainty

of mathematics to all areas of human knowledge, he discarded the authoritarian systems

of the scholastic philosophers, who lacked method, and began with this methodological

doubt to obtain knowledge. This system resembles the axiomatic, geometric system.

Axioms, were self evident principals which were .so clear and distinct. that they could

not be doubted, and therefore accepted as certain and undoubtedly contents of

knowledge . He discovered that these intuitively certain principals, (axioms), were the

foundations of which knowledge must be based on. He believed that intuition, not the

senses, provided the foundation of clear and distinct axioms. He explains that .for true

knowledge of external things seems to belong to the [rational] mind alone, not the

composite of mind and body[senses].

The Content and Objects of Knowledge–David Hume

Contrary to his rational predecessor, British philosopher David Hume approached

his epistemology with an empirical view. Because he denied miracles and other religious

dogmas, he believed that clarification was the first thing he needed to do in order to

remove them, as well as dissolve the Cartesian method of thinking. This is to say that he

wanted a clean slate (Tabula Ross.)To do this, he believed that, unlike Descartes axioms

(first principals,) perceptions were the main content of knowledge. Hume believed that a

prori ideas did not exist and that our ideas are not innate, but derived purely from

experience of .perceptions. According to Hume, .perceptions,. can be reduced to

impressions and ideas. He believed that humans learned ideas through impressions, and

that if there is no impression, there is no idea. .Therefore this clearly formed a

dependence of ideas on the initial impression that made them. Unlike Descartes belief that

reason is the same for every person, Hume believed that every individual.s perceptions

were his alone, and distinct from other people.s.

Hume believed that three principals of association bound perceptions together:

Resemblance, Contiguity (in time or place,) and Cause and Effect. By resemblance, Hume

uses the example of a picture of something evokes the thought of the original. For

Contiguity, Hume refers to the mention of an apartment building would invoke the

thought of other apartment buildings. And if one thinks of a wound, they would think of

the pain that is associated with it (cause and effect.) These are also Hume.s objects of

knowledge, and are used in the method to determine whether certainty exists.

Descartes–method

Descartes decides to base his method on fours rules or laws..

The first rule was

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