Professor Shannon Kincaid
Philosophy 101
December 10,2017 Race?
Race is defined as a group of persons related by common descent or heredity. Yet, such a simple definition has been the core of many heated confrontations. Race has constantly been used in arguments concerning classism, socialism, wealth, etc. However, one of the most controversial issues that involve race is slavery. There has been a plethora of views as to how slavery was commenced and ironically, the answer is right before our eyes. If you look closely at present day America, you can clearly see we are living in modern day slavery. Even prior to slavery, people had a scarcity mentality where the belief was that everything is limited, and …show more content…
He claims that Locke’s Theory of Perception is far too simplistic due to its failure to capture the complexity of experience. Therefore, he rejects the correspondence theory of truth. Instead, Hume believes in the coherence theory of truth, which states that an idea is true to the degree it coheres within a larger pattern of thinking. In Hume’s Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding, he distinguishes the two perceptions of the mind: impressions and ideas. Impressions are composed of direct sense experiences of things outside of us (sensations) or inside of us (emotions, needs and desires). Ideas, on the contrary, are copies of impressions. For example, some ideas are not direct copies of a impression, but modifications of impressions. Hence, aligning with his belief that the imagination functions in the a priori where the imagination is subjective to all our emotions, needs and …show more content…
Relations of ideas are beliefs that refers to states of affair within the mind; they are capable of demonstration because they have no external referent (Kemerling). Matters of fact are beliefs that refer to states of affairs in the world; they are always contingent (Kemerling). For example, mathematical and logical knowledge relies upon relations of ideas, while propositions of natural science depend upon matters of fact. However, because most of our belief rests upon matters of fact, Hume was determined to explain their origin. Hume believed that since each idea is distinct and separable from every other, there is no self-evident relation and that these connections can only be derived from our experience of similar cases. Hence, the reason he presumed that causal reasoning can never be justified rationally. He stated that in order to learn we must suppose that our past experiences bear some relevance to present and future cases. Although many believe that the future will be like the past, Hume says the truth of that belief is not self-evident. He proposes that it is always possible for nature to change, so inferences from past to future are never rationally certain. As a result, Hume concludes that all beliefs in matters of fact are fundamentally non-rational. In Hume’s Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding, he uses the example of our belief that the sun will rise