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An Analysis Of David Hume’s “An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding” - Term Papers

An Analysis Of David Hume’s “An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding”

In his passage “An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding”, David Hume seeks to answer the popular philosophical question of how human beings acquire knowledge. To Hume, knowledge is what the mind perceives, and these perceptions can be broken down and classified in two distinct categories; (1) Thoughts & Ideas, and (2) Impressions. Although these two “classes” are distinct, Hume contends that all thoughts and ideas are derived from impressions.
To quote Hume, impressions are “all our more lively perceptions when we hear, or see, or feel, or love, or hate, or desire, or will.” It seems that Hume is claiming that all of our Sensory Input leaves these impressions on our mind. When the ...

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to see, thus without these impressions, the man cannot imagine what the color red is or what it looks like. But, if somehow the blind man is able to see, “this new inlet for his sensations” will provide the ability to conceive ideas. This ability of conceiving ideas is brought to us by the senses and through experience.
Using again the example of color, who is to say that everyone sees colors that same way? I see the color yellow, and through past experience I know the color is yellow. But, another person may see the color yellow and imagine its “colorness” as being what I consider to be red. We, as humans, may be able to relate to each others thoughts and ideas, or in this case visual perceptions, but we can never truly know what sensations are being experienced by that individual. This example is the best way I can describe what Hume refers to as “thoughts and ideas”. Human thoughts and ideas are compounded impressions. The human mind is able to produce images of real ...

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PAPER DETAILS

Added: 3/3/2005 04:43:35 PM
Category: English
Type: Premium Paper
Words: 430
Pages: 2

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