SOCCIO ARCHETYPES OF WISDOM
CHAPTER 10
THE SKEPTIC: DAVID HUME
Chapter 10 Key Concepts
Skepticism is both a school of philosophy and a general
Empiricism is the belief that all knowledge is ultimately
derived from the senses (experience). Empiricists believe that
all ideas can be traced back to sense data. There are no innate
ideas. At birth the mind is a clean slate, or tabula rasa.
John Locke was the first of the three British empiricists.
Locke claimed that all ideas are copies of the things that
Although Locke rejected Descartes s rationalism and
theory of innate ideas, he accepted a Cartesian type of
dualism, in which mind and matter are viewed as different
kinds of substance.
Locke distinguished between primary qualities and
sensible qualities. Primary qualities are sensible qualities that
The correspondence theory generates what is called the
egocentric predicament: If all knowledge comes in the form
of my own ideas, how can I verify the existence of anything
external to them?
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Locke s successor, George Berkeley, rejected the copy
Perception, however, cannot account for ideas such as the
self or the apparent continuity of experiences for example,
The third British empiricist, David Hume, continued the
epistemological turn by rejecting overly abstract, obscure,
bloated metaphysical speculation as meaningless and
irrelevant to the lives of average people. He asserted that no
metaphysical issue was ever clearly and thoroughly settled.
Hume modified Locke s theory of ideas by distinguishing
Hume established the empirical criterion of meaning: All
meaningful ideas can be traced back to sense experience
(impressions). Beliefs that cannot be traced back to sense
Applying the empirical criterion of meaning, Hume
argued that we have no idea of the self; the self is only a
bundle of impressions, and identity is a mental act, not a
property of things.
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Hume thought that imagination not reason or
experience accounts for the persistence of our belief in the
Strictly considered, Hume argues, there are no empirical
grounds for belief in cause and effect. We experience only
constant conjunction. Cause and effect are products of
imagination.
The empirical criterion of meaning renders meaningless
the cosmological argument, the argument from motion, and
In the end, Hume claimed that no one can actually live as
a skeptic: Reason is, and ought to be, the slave of the passions.
Hume argued that reason plays a secondary role to
sentiments when it comes to making moral judgments.
Descriptive language, the language of facts, is devoid of
all subjective, evaluative interpretations. Normative language
expresses personal preferences and evaluations of all sorts.
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Chapter 10 Teaching Tips
1. Consider beginning this unit by asking students about
their experiences as opposed to their beliefs regarding miracles,
premonitions, psychic experiences, or mind cures. Because
2. Explain that the New Testament story of the disciple
Thomas s refusal to believe that Jesus had returned from the
dead until he had examined Jesus for himself rather than
taking the claim on faith is the source of the expression
Don t be a Doubting Thomas. Ask the class what difference
it would make if, instead of being a doubter, Thomas were
thought of as skeptical, careful, scientific Thomas?
3. Illustrate the power of the empirical criterion of meaning
with a careful analysis of love. I have found that the
rationalizations surrounding spousal abuse offer fertile
ground for empirical assessment. Couples in abusive
relationships often repeatedly break up and get back together
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4. Have you ever had a student say something like this? I
am an A student, but you have given me a C. Another rich
source of rationalistic thinking can be found in beliefs
centering around some sort of essence or true self (see
5. Pursue the ideas raised in tip 4 with regard to personal
identity. You might refer students to Samuel Johnson s
remarks on self-deception or Bishop Butler s sermon Upon
Self-deceit. What is the relationship between vague feelings
of who we are and who we really are? Of course, this complex
6. John Barth s risqué philosophical novel The Sot-Weed
Factor contains some wicked satire about Hume s bundle
theory of the self. One character appears as a robust young
man, a diseased old woman, and so on, in completely
7. A more serious example of the implications of dualism
occurred in the aftermath of a controversial 2011 murder trial
of a young mother accused of killing her child and dumping
the toddler s body in a wooded field a few blocks from home.
The mother was found not guilty of murder but seems to have
at minimum played a role in disposing of the child s corpse.
Asked how her daughter could have just left her dead baby in
8. The past few years have seen a number of high-profile
books arguing or professing against belief in God: The God
Delusion (Richard Dawkins), God Is Not Great (Christopher
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9. The problem of evil makes an interesting topic for an
empirical analysis. Voltaire s satire Candide is a well-known
empirical critique of Leibniz s rationalistic argument that
This is the best of all possible worlds. In a nutshell, Leibniz
argues that since God is all-good, all-wise, and all-powerful,
he would want the best possible world (all-good); he would
10. Hume s criticism of induction and scientific method is
subtle and important. When you tackle it, note how carefully
11. Address the issue of demanding certainty by presenting
the popular skeptical paradox: Knowledge is impossible.
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12. Regarding identity and self: Confusion arises because, as
Hume has shown, our actual perceptions are always,
precisely speaking, of different objects. When the objects of
immediate perception closely resemble similar objects of
memory, we note the similarity, not the differences. As a