David Hume Copy Principle Analysis

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David Hume was a well known Scottish philosopher who lived in the period of 1711-1776 and was greatly recognized for his empiricism and skepticism. He held a strong belief that the idea of knowledge is something practical, straightforward and clear, which essentially led to the formation of his famous “Copy Principle.” In his Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding, Hume expands on the concepts of experience and senses as means of providing knowledge. Before analyzing the degree of validity of the “Copy Principle,” it is crucial to understand the underlying concept of the argument. Hume essentially believes that all our ideas and concepts ultimately come from experience that we have acquired throughout our lifetime. He goes even further and …show more content…
As mentioned previously, Hume believes that all ideas and concepts come from previous experience. Every idea from the simplest to the most complex that us humans have had, or are going to have in our lifetime, can all be traced back to and fuelled down to our impressions, or experiences with our inner and outer senses. On the contrary, if we cannot trace an idea back to its origins, then the idea should be discarded and rejected as meaningless. Hume’s Copy Principle requires one to understand the difference between simple and complex ideas as well as the difference between ideas and impressions. David Hume defines simple ideas as those made up of simple or one identity and cannot be further broken down into more basic concepts. These ideas can be compounded (put together), transposed (moved around), augmented (made bigger) or diminished (made smaller). On the other hand, complex ideas are those made up of any simple ideas that haven’t directly come from experiences- and thus, can be broken down into collections of simple ideas. Impressions, according to Hume, are lively and vivid perceptions meanwhile, ideas are drawn from memory or the imagination and therefore, are less lively and vivid (pg.16). Thinking for Hume works with ideas as images like imagination and memory. Ideas are purely faint perceptions that label all our memories, thoughts and imaginations about things. Impressions are merely the immediate sensations that are branded into our brain when we experience stimuli with our senses, both inner and outer. He equates having impressions with “feeling” or first-hand experience. Thinking according to him involves forming a faint image or assembling a montage of faint images of sensations, passions, and emotions. For example, according to Hume’s definition of impressions, both the color red and the feeling of anger are considered impressions. On the other hand,

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