Analysis Of David Hume's An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding

In his work, An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding, David Hume creates an entirely new approach to human knowledge. Using this novel method of philosophy, Hume strives to apply the rigor of scientific methodology to philosophical reasoning. He achieves this through a crucial distinction between matters of fact and the relations of ideas, in which he asserts that experience alone is the only certain way to gain substantial knowledge of the world since ideas can be altered or manipulated by the mind and therefore do not truly represent what will happen, but instead what is expected to happen based on prior familiarity. Hume demonstrates his empiricist approach most forcefully in Section X of his work, an essay entitled “On Miracles.” In this section, Hume attacks the very idea of a miracle, explaining that since miracles do not come from experience but rather the testimony and ideas of others, there …show more content…
Contrary to rationalism, Hume argues against the existence of innate ideas, suggesting instead that humans can only have knowledge gained from experience, which he calls impressions of sensations, and the subsequent ideas which are recalled from experience. Hume describes impressions as “[A]ll our more lively perceptions, when we hear, or see, or feel, or love, or hate, or desire, or will” (Hume, p.18, gp.13), and he furthers this by explaining that “[I]mpressions are distinguished from ideas, which are the less lively perceptions, of which we are conscious, when we reflect on any of those sensations or movements above mentioned” (p.18, gp.13). The basis of Hume’s argument is that humans acquire knowledge from experience—what is seen, heard, felt, etc.—and that all subsequent ideas come from these impressions which are gathered from experience. In addition, these impressions of sensation work together with ideas to give knowledge; without both, knowledge cannot be