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This 3 page paper looks at Hume's ideas on knowledge and belief. The concept of causation is the focus of this paper. No additional sources cited.
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3 pages (~225 words per page)
File: RT13_SA314Hum.rtf
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really perhaps based on belief. In other words, people cannot really know what causes events. What Hume explains is essentially that man looks at an event and surmises a causes.
For instance, one may see their husbands car parked in front of a female acquaintances apartment complex and assume that he is having an affair. Yet, that is not a
valid conclusion. It is only a belief. Perhaps the husband walks out of the building with another male friend and then the wife realizes that it was an innocent event,
but she jumped to conclusions. Her belief was that the cause of the sighting was adultery. The same thing can be related to scientific pursuits. For example, someone becomes ill
and they assume that it is because they were exposed to the chicken pox a week earlier, but such presumptions are not in fact definite conclusions. How do people come
to conclusions? Hume believes that people begin with an impression and then go from there. People begin with an impression and just assume that there is a cause and effect
relationship. Yet, is this knowledge? It is likely to be belief. Further, Hume saw such conclusions as being derived from more than just reasoning and experience anyway. Deductive and
causal reasoning are two types but it is still not construed as adequate to derive knowledge. If reasoning and experience is not adequate to come to finite conclusions, then what
is? What is knowledge anyway? According to Hume, it is multiple experiences. For example, a young man of 21 might have his first alcoholic drink and feel light headed and
nauseous. He may conclude based on reason, and this one experience, that alcohol makes all people feel lightheaded and nauseous. Yet, one could say that he is young and
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