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Essay / Research Paper Abstract
A 3 page paper. The writer reacts to the statement, Reason is overrated, using Hume's thinking about reason. Specifically, Hume's ideas found in his Treatise are used to determine how Hume would respond to the premise. Bibliography lists 3 sources.
Page Count:
3 pages (~225 words per page)
File: MM12_PGhumres.rtf
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Unformatted sample text from the term paper:
that reason is overrated. As an empiricist, Hume believed that a person gains knowledge only through experiences, not through some sort of logical reasoning (Landry, 1999). An individual determines what
is true by what he experiences through his own senses as long as the most recent experience is consistent with that persons past experiences (Landry, 1999). But, the fact that
the person may experience the same thing consistently does not necessarily make it true (Landry, 1999). Hume also believed that even if an investigator made the very same observations
over and over again, that person could still not make an unrestricted universal statement about the observation (Landry, 1999). In other words, even if our experiences always show a specific
sequence of events, such as one thing causing another, there is no guarantee that the same consequence will occur the next time (Landry, 1999). Reason would lead us to believe
that a cause will always have the same effect but Hume seems to be saying that would be an inaccurate supposition. Hume said: "Reason is, and ought to be, only
the slave of the passions. All human actions flow naturally from human feelings, without any interference from human reason" (Kemerling, 2002). Here, at least, Hume is positing that reason does
not have a very important role to play in life, thus, reason, to Hume, would be definitely overrated as an essential element in determining actions and establishing beliefs. When discussing
morality, Hume commented that reason does not have anything to do with behaviors (Kemerling, 2002). Traditional morality, in Humes opinion, emerged from a moral sense not from any sort of
reasoning (Kemerling, 2002). People act in moral ways because it brings pleasure, this is based in experience not in logical thought processing (Kemerling, 2002). It goes back to the earlier
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