Preparing for Quiz 6

In this section we read David Hume, the most important of the modern empiricists, and, some say, the most important philosopher ever to write in English. We study his 20th-century heirs, the logical positivists. We also study Immanuel Kant, a philosopher perhaps even more important in the history of philosophy than Hume. There is a lot to read and understand in this section, so I think you will need to spend more than one week on this material.

This is the material for Quiz 6.

Readings for Quiz 6

The reading assignments for this section are:

• DP Ch 3 "Hume's Radicalization of Berkeley's Empiricism"

• Hume's Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding Sections II, III, and IV

• Hume's Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding Section V Part I

• Hume's Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding Section VII Part II

• DP Ch 3 "Kant's Compromise" and "Conclusion"

• The following notes:

  • Notes on Hume

  • Kant: The "Copernican Revolution" in Philosophy

Objectives for Quiz 6

You should be able to answer the following essay questions:

1. Hume claims that there is no knowledge of any necessary connection between causes and effects. What is Hume’s argument for this claim?

2. Explain Hume’s Fork.

3. Explain the "Copernican Revolution" in philosophy. How did Kant go beyond rationalism and empiricism?

4. Most empiricism presupposes psychological atomism, the view that any mental state can be analyzed into simple, discrete perceptual units (sense data), so that one’s total mental state is always a fusion of these “atoms.” Is psychological atomism correct? Explain why or why not. Your explanation must use arguments in the assigned reading.