Hume's Skepticism
Book 1, Part 4:
Section 1: Skepticism with Regard to Reason
Reason is a kind of
cause. What is the natural effect?
How knowledge degenerates
into probability.
If Reason destroys its own
products, what is the source of all belief?
Section 2: Skepticism with Regard to the Senses
para. 1: What does Hume mean by "body"?
This entire section is not to
convince us to stop believing in bodies, which would be vain, but to clarify
why it is that we believe in bodies.
para. 2: the concept of body can be divided in two
parts: (a) continued existence and (b)
distinct existence. Distinct existence
itself has two parts: (i) external and (b) independent
The three possible
causes:
paras. 4-13: It's not the senses.
para. 14: It's not Reason.
paras. 15 ff. It is the imagination.
How does the imagination give
us the idea of continued and distinct existence? [This is a deep question.]
In his explanation, Hume
reverses the order:
paras. 20-22: What is responsible for our belief in
distinct existence? Coherence.
paras. 23-24: What is responsible for our belief in
continued existence? Constancy.
The puzzle: Reasoning about bodies is not an instance of Humean causal reasoning.
Why not?
How then, does the
imagination do it[WJT1] ?
What is the vulgar view of
bodies?
What experiment disconfirms
the vulgar view[WJT2] ?
What is the philosophical
view? The opinion of
double existence.
What is Hume's official view?
But if we could never have an
idea of "body", how could we believe in bodies?
The paradox: Does Hume think that his arguments show that
it is impossible to have the idea of body?
Does he think that his
philosophy will stop us from believing in bodies[WJT3] ?
Section 3: More on the idea of substance and the idea of
accident: fictions, faculties, and
occult qualities.
Section 4: The Argument Against
the Primary/Secondary Quality Distinction.
No qualities are more real
than any others.
What is the ultimate judge of
all systems of philosophy? What is the
test that Hume applies to determine which products of it to trust?
How does Hume attempt to
undermine the primary/secondary quality distinction?