Reason and Experience

Hume: An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding

In this course, Professor Helen Beebee (University of Manchester) explores one of the most foundational texts of modern philosophy, David Hume's An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding. The course begins by exploring Hume's explanation of how we come to know what (we think) we know, before moving on in the second module to look more specifically at the justification for beliefs that are not based on immediate or past sensory experience (e.g. the belief that the sun will rise tomorrow). In this third module, we apply Hume's 'inductive scepticism' to the idea of causation, before exploring in the fourth module Hume's compatibilist position on free will and determinism. The course concludes with a final module on Hume's position on the believability (or otherwise) of miracles.

Reason and Experience

In this module, we explore Hume's explanation of how we come to know what (we think) we know, focusing in particular about Hume's distinction between 'relations of ideas' and 'matters of fact and experience'. As an empiricist, Hume can explain a priori beliefs (i.e. beliefs that are not based on sensory experience) as well as beliefs based on current or past experience, but what about beliefs based on something we've never experienced (e.g. my belief that the sun will rise tomorrow)? How did our belief that (e.g.) the sun will rise tomorrow get there? And what grounds are there for thinking that the belief is really true?