Epistemology: Hume's Skepticism and Induction Part 1

54문장 0% 인도네시아어 번역 1명 참여 출처 : 칸아카데미
번역 0%

Epistemology: Hume's Skepticism and Induction Part 1 발음듣기

(intro music) My name is Daniel Greco and I'm an assistant professor of philosophy at Yale University.발음듣기

Today's video will concern a topic in epistemology, which is the branch of philosophy that deals with the study of knowledge.발음듣기

In particular, I'll discuss a version of skepticism, which is the idea that we know a lot less than we ordinarily take ourselves to.발음듣기

The sort of skepticism I'll discuss is due to David Hume, who was an eighteenth-century Scottish philosopher and historian, and it targets our knowledge of the unobserved.발음듣기

To get clearer about just what that amounts to, we'll have to start with some examples.발음듣기

So we ordinarily take ourselves to know lots about things that we haven't directly observed.발음듣기

For instance, I take it that I know that blue whales are the largest animals on earth.발음듣기

I bet you know that too.발음듣기

I take it I know that the Alpha Centauri system is the nearest star system to our own.발음듣기

I take it I know that there was a man named Napolean who conquered much of Europe.발음듣기

I also take it I know when the next American presidential election will be.발음듣기

None of these are things that I've directly observed.발음듣기

I haven't seen any blue whales.발음듣기

I certainly haven't seen all other animals on earth to compare them to.발음듣기

I never met Napoleon, and I haven't observed anything in 2016 yet.발음듣기

And yet I, and I take it you, ordinarily take myself to know all sorts of things about these matters.발음듣기

So how do we know these things about stuff that we haven't yet observed?발음듣기

In some cases it seems pretty easy.발음듣기

For instance, I know that all triangles, even triangles I haven't yet observed, have three sides.발음듣기

Or I know that next year, if I have two apples and two oranges, I'll have four pieces of fruit.발음듣기

What's special about these cases that makes them so easy to know?발음듣기

The way that Hume put it, they express relations of ideas.발음듣기

A relation of ideas is something whose denial is inconceivable, or self-contradictory.발음듣기

Try to imagine a two-sided triangle.발음듣기

I take it you can't do it.발음듣기

Or try to imagine a situation where I have two apples and two oranges, nothing else, but where I don't have four pieces of fruit.발음듣기

Again, I suspect you're gonna have trouble.발음듣기

Here's another way of getting at the same idea.발음듣기

Relations of ideas have to be true, no matter how the world turns out. They're necessary truths.발음듣기

So what does it take to know claims like this?발음듣기

What does it take to know relations of ideas?발음듣기

To quote Hume, he said that propositions of this kind are discoverable by the mere operation of thought, without dependence on what is anywhere existent in the universe.발음듣기

And what does that mean? Why does he think it's true?발음듣기

I take it the idea is something like this.발음듣기

If some claim is a relation of ideas, then it will be true no matter what the world is like.발음듣기

So in order to know that it's true, we don't need to go out and gather evidence about what the world is like.발음듣기

The evidence might tell us the world is this way rather than that way, but no matter what way the world is like, all triangles will have three sides.발음듣기

Two pieces of fruit and another two pieces of fruit will make four pieces of fruit.발음듣기

So if anything at all is required to know that a relation of ideas is true, it's just understanding.발음듣기

This is what Hume called the "mere operation of thought."발음듣기

That's enough to see that it has to be true, and so to know that it's true.발음듣기

Okay, contrast relations of ideas with another class of claims that Hume called "matters of fact."발음듣기

For example, as I now make this video, it's raining outside.발음듣기

Or here's another one: I have a fluffy puppy.발음듣기

So these claims are true, both of them, but their denials are not inconceivable or contradictory.발음듣기

The mere operation of thought isn't enough to get us knowledge of their truth.발음듣기

You could easily imagine that it's sunny outside.발음듣기

In fact, maybe as you listen to this video, it is.발음듣기

Or you could imagine that I have no pets at all, including no fluffy puppy, even though, in fact, I do.발음듣기

So because these claims have denials that aren't contradictory, because you can conceive that they're false, it's not enough to just understand what they mean to see that they're true.발음듣기

You have to go out and make some observations, see that the world is one way, rather than another way.발음듣기

So these matters of fact contrast with relations of ideas and what it takes to know them.발음듣기

This distinction that Hume is getting at, between relations of ideas and matters of fact, is closely related to what was later called "the distinction between the a priori and the a posteriori," by Immanuel Kant.발음듣기

칸아카데미 더보기더 보기

전체보기
Top