Emp

Question 1

Empiricism

Answer 1

All of our substantial knowledge and all of our concepts come from experience.

Question 2

Concept empiricism

Answer 2

All concepts come from experience (all “ideas” are ultimately caused by “impressions”)

Hume distinguishes between “impressions” (i.e. experiences) and “ideas (i,e concepts)
Impressions are more “vivid and forceful” than concepts/ideas, according to Hume
Concepts/ideas are faint “copies” of impressions
Impressions cause ideas (not vice versa)

Ideas/concepts can be split into two types:
-simple concepts (can’t be analysed into other concepts; must each be caused by a simple impression)
-complex concepts (ultimately made up of simple concepts; need not be directly caused by experience)

We have no innate concepts; our minds are a ‘tabula rasa’ (a blank slate).

Question 3

Knowledge empiricism

Answer 3

All knowledge is either a posteriori or just analytic (a priori)

We have no innate knowledge; our minds are a ‘tabula rasa’ (a blank slate)

Question 4

Tabula rasa

Answer 4

Blank slate

Question 5

The mind as a tabula rasa

Answer 5

There’s no innate concepts and no innate truths/knowledge.

Question 6

Impressions

Answer 6

include sensations [like pain] as well as desires, passions, and emotions.

Question 7

Ideas

Answer 7

the faint images of impressions in thinking and reasoning. It is the difference between feeling the pain of your present sunburn and recalling last year’s sunburn

Question 8

Impressions of sensation

Answer 8

the feelings we get from our five senses as well as pains and pleasures, all of which arise in us “originally, from unknown causes

Question 9

Impressions of reflection

Answer 9

Desires, emotions, passions, and sentiments.

They are essentially reactions or responses to ideas, which is why he calls them secondary.

Your memories of last year’s sunburn are ideas, copies of the original impressions you had when the sunburn occurred.

Recalling those ideas causes you to fear that you’ll get another sunburn this year, to hope that you won’t, and to want to take proper precautions to avoid overexposure to the sun.

Question 10

Complex impressions

Answer 10

made up of a group of simple impressions

Question 11

Simple impressions

Answer 11

can’t be broken down further because they have no component parts

Question 12

Copy principle

Answer 12

all simple ideas are caused by simple impressions. You can’t have a simple idea without the corresponding impression.

Question 13

How do we get complex ideas?

Answer 13

(i) copies of complex impressions

(ii) composed of simpler ideas that, in the end, are copies of impressions

Question 14

Hume’s fork

Answer 14

relations of ideas and matters of fact

Question 15

relations of ideas

Answer 15

A Priori, analytic, necessary

Question 16

matters of fact

Answer 16

A Posteriori, synthetic, contingent

Question 17

The triviality of reason

Answer 17

All a priori knowledge is analytic and so is trivial. Its truth is independent of how reality is. It tells us nothing about reality. It is just about the meanings of concepts

Question 18

Importance of experience

Answer 18

All our substantial synthetic knowledge is a posteriori. Knowing about reality requires experience of it.