Class Synopsis

In Class on Friday we discussed the books of Hume's Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding. Book 1 discussed how Hume believes rationalism is just a shelter to cover error and that the self is just a various bundle of interconnected perceptions linked together to form an identity. In Book 2 Hume explored impressions vs. ideas and stated that perceptions is more lively than memory. This led him to believe perception and sensation is the cause of all ideas (empiricism). Nothing is a priori for Hume. In Book 3 Hume addresses the Idea of Association of Idea via Resemblence, Contiguity, and cause/effect (all ideas come from impressions). He believes all these associations are habit and don't reflect the real world. The example was given of Pavlov's Dog-Bells Cause Food Theory. We discussed Kant and the Copernican Revolution and his response to the skeptical empiricism of Hume. His one main question is are synthetic a priori judgements about noumena possible? The noumenal is what is really real (analytic). Synthetis vs. Analytis (kinds or propositions) means every sentence has two terms: a subject and a predicate that are different. Then we discussed the catagories of perception and asked the question are we color blind? The conclusion was the world itself is not orange and brown but time and space. Lastly, Kant agreed with Hume that we can never really experience cause and effect and that we humans do not need to think in terms of cause and effect becuase it is one of the catagories of our mind.