Epistemology is the study of knowledge in regards to its limits and validity, knowledge in the sense of the facts, information and skills that humans can acquire. The basis of this human knowledge has been repeatedly studied throughout the history of philosophy. When analyzing Descartes’ Meditations of First Philosophy and Hume’s Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding, it is evident that they have both similarities and differences when it comes to their assessments on the foundation of human knowledge of the external material world such as their agreement that the method in which we have tried to understand the world is wrong. On the other hand, although Descartes and Hume have this resemblance between their accounts, they each have unique
…show more content…
He uses the deductive method to go from the universal to the particular. Descartes begins his method by stating that he must start brand new instead of trying to fix what philosophers of the past have theorized because in order to make any progress the foundation must be 100% reliable which it has not been so far (Meditations, pg.8). He comes up with a new scientific method which outlines four rules. The first is the rule of radical doubt in which he is not going to have an utmost amount of skepticism and accept nothing doubtful. The second rule says to divide the problem into its smallest parts following the third rule of synthesis of putting the “pieces” back together. The final rule states the importance of not leaving anything out (Meditations, pg.11). These guidelines outline how Descartes believes that if you want to understand something one must understand what it is made out of and how the parts are put together. A general rule is made by Descartes which is all propositions that make clear and distinct claims about the world are true. He states that ideas can be divided into three categories, those that are self-produced which don’t give us any real information about the world, those that are adventitious which are externally known through one’s perception and then innate ideas (Meditations, pg.72). Descartes claims that these innate …show more content…
His method is scientific as he takes particular situations to get general principals. Hume followed the empiricist approach which uses sense experiences rather than reason to explain the basis of human knowledge. He distinguishes between two different types of perception, ideas and impressions. Impressions are lively and vivid experiences while ideas are less lively and vivid since they are created by our mind (Enquiry, pg.13). He states that everything we know about the world can be traced back to these direct experiences of the world and that nothing is known by just reason alone. Hume believes that ideas are created when we reflect on our impressions. He refers to this claim with the idea of a golden mountain, although someone has never directly perceived one, by putting their idea of a mountain and gold together which were both previously acquainted this idea can be imagined (Enquiry, pg.14). Therefore, we can only imagine things that are derived from impressions which we have once directly
He uses the deductive method to go from the universal to the particular. Descartes begins his method by stating that he must start brand new instead of trying to fix what philosophers of the past have theorized because in order to make any progress the foundation must be 100% reliable which it has not been so far (Meditations, pg.8). He comes up with a new scientific method which outlines four rules. The first is the rule of radical doubt in which he is not going to have an utmost amount of skepticism and accept nothing doubtful. The second rule says to divide the problem into its smallest parts following the third rule of synthesis of putting the “pieces” back together. The final rule states the importance of not leaving anything out (Meditations, pg.11). These guidelines outline how Descartes believes that if you want to understand something one must understand what it is made out of and how the parts are put together. A general rule is made by Descartes which is all propositions that make clear and distinct claims about the world are true. He states that ideas can be divided into three categories, those that are self-produced which don’t give us any real information about the world, those that are adventitious which are externally known through one’s perception and then innate ideas (Meditations, pg.72). Descartes claims that these innate …show more content…
His method is scientific as he takes particular situations to get general principals. Hume followed the empiricist approach which uses sense experiences rather than reason to explain the basis of human knowledge. He distinguishes between two different types of perception, ideas and impressions. Impressions are lively and vivid experiences while ideas are less lively and vivid since they are created by our mind (Enquiry, pg.13). He states that everything we know about the world can be traced back to these direct experiences of the world and that nothing is known by just reason alone. Hume believes that ideas are created when we reflect on our impressions. He refers to this claim with the idea of a golden mountain, although someone has never directly perceived one, by putting their idea of a mountain and gold together which were both previously acquainted this idea can be imagined (Enquiry, pg.14). Therefore, we can only imagine things that are derived from impressions which we have once directly