A second challenge of Hume is that we are able to possibly imagine that something can cause itself into existence. This challenge severely weaken's Aquinas argument from cause as it suggests that in fact there is no need for a fist cause as regress of cause and effect is disrupted. Anscombe's response to Hume is, in "When there is a beginning there must be a cause: Hume's argument exposed," that it may be possible to imagine this being the case but it is illogical to suppose that this is the case as it is a "contradiction to absurdity" to decide that "it could be" therefore "it is." It is similar to imagine that a magician may be able to pull a rabbit out of a hat without any prior knowledge of its existence but to suppose it is the case that this has happened is illogical. However modern theoretical and quantum physicists have begun to produce evidence that it is perhaps evident that energy has the ability to come into existence of its own accord which would
'Only Hard Determinism is justifiable' Discuss. Determinism is the idea that all actions are governed by laws outside of one’s control. Some philosophers believer that one’s ability to make free choices is an illusion whereas, others state that there is something else beyond understanding that may cause one’s actions to be determined. There are a variety of theories which are response to dealing with debate about free will and determinism. Hard determinism is the theory that human behaviour and actions are wholly determined by external factors, and therefore humans do not have genuine free will or ethical accountability.
According to Hume we build up all our ideas from simple impressions by means of three laws of association: Resemblance, Contiguity, & Cause and Effect. Hume distinguishes between relations of ideas and matters of fact; he says that relations of ideas are, for the most part, mathematical truths, so denial of them would result in a contradiction. Matters of fact are the more common truths that we learn from experience (for example the sun rising in the morning). Hume also says that that there is no rational justification for a belief in miracles. There are many contradictions in Hume, but there is little agreement on what these contradictions show about Hume's thought in general.
That is, a false premise can possibly lead to a false result, and inconclusive premises will also yield an inconclusive conclusion. Both types of reasoning are routinely employed. One difference between them is that in deductive reasoning, the evidence provided must be a set about which everything is known before the conclusion can be drawn. Since it is difficult to know everything before drawing a conclusion, deductive reasoning has little use in the real world. This is where inductive reasoning steps in.
However this version of the verification principle has been criticized as being too strict as statements such as History, can not be seen as meaningful as they cannot be empirically verified by the senses, and it neither a tautology of all the events that have taken part in the past. The second part to the verification principle was made and developed by A.J Ayer. Ayer believed that with using the weak verification to prove statements you would be able to verify them in principle unlike the strong verification principle, which can only be proved meaningful if it is observed, or
AJ Ayer in his book “language, truth and Logic” outlines what is commonly called the “emotivist” approach to ethical language. This approach supports the idea that ethical language is subjective. Ayer suggests that unless propositions and use of language is analytic or synthetic, such propositions carry no cognitive meaning. This approach to philosophical and ethical language (the concern of Analytic philosophy) was called the “verification principle” and was a development of David Hume’s work, “Hume’s fork”. Ethical statements, Ayer said, cannot be verified analytically or synthetically so the truth of such phrases is unknowable and the language used is non-cognitive.
They reject both innate and universal intelligence as a belief. They believe other factors upset the equilibrium of the body and so offer a wider scope of practice. This has earned them the nickname ‘mixers’ (Coulter I, 1999). Overarching these concepts are methods of reasoning, which are used to base an argument or as a method for forming conclusions. History Vitalism originated with Socrates and Hippocrates.
But even if it is said that there might be a designer, Hume criticizes that a cause need only be relative to its effect. So it is therefore not valid to argue from this limited world and its supposed design to some infinite or perfect designer, being God. Hume states that the evidence just does not allow us to go that far. He also points out that, since this is the only world that we know, we can’t really tell whether or not it is good. It may be that last string of a set of worlds that were badly constructed, and may therefore be the result of having tried and failed many times.
Moral judgments will vary as much as one individual varies from another individual. As seems obvious to me, due to the fact that moral judgments cannot be purely derived from reason or passion alone, is the notion that both are necessary for the
Have you ever found yourself trying to rationalize the world around you? Trying to make sense of it all but the pieces don’t fit, the numbers don’t add up, and your longing for reason and understanding seem to unachievable because of the limitations of what we really do or can understand. What if those limitations could fade away, with just one pill? Your hunger for true knowledge would suddenly be attainable. Would you risk leaving the familiar, all that you know, and all that you have ever perceived and loved, to satisfy your need of truth?