David Hume and Future Occurrences Essay - 739 Words

David Hume, in An Inquiry Concerning Human Understanding, discusses how we cannot predict the future. Even though our experiences and our reasoning tell us that objects act in a predictable way, we still cannot prove how objects will act in the future based upon previous interactions. After biting into a piece of pizza we expect an enjoyable taste. This enjoyable taste is expected because our past experiences have proven this to us. Even though we think we can predict that the pizza will act the same as our previous experiences, it may just blow up upon biting. Hume explains that there is no way to predict the future based on our previous experiences and reasoning and I will explain the logic he uses to prove this. To start, Hume makes†¦show more content†¦An example of a matter of fact is that my name is Josh Peete. I could have been named something else like John Doe and I still would be the same object. â€Å"The contrary of every matter of fact is still possible, because it can never imply a contradiction and is conceived by the mind with the same facility and distinctness, as if ever so conformable to reality.†(500) So the opposite of a matter of fact can be true. The piece of pizza that I bite into could explode in my face even though I had never experienced that before. Matters of fact, or knowledge learned through experience, cannot prove how objects function. People believe in matters of fact because they have some other reason for doing so. â€Å"All reasoning concerning matter of fact seems to be founded on the relation of cause and effect. By means of that relation alone we can go beyond the evidence of our memory and senses.†(500) I have a firecracker and a lighter. The cause for the firecracker to explode would be me lighting the fuse. The effect of me lighting the fuse would be that the firecracker explodes. These claims are called causal claims and they explain the cause and effect relationships of objects. Hume uses the example of someone on a desert island who finds a watch. The person on the island concludes that the effect of a watch being on the island is a cause of a human once inhabiting it. His reasoning though may beShow MoreRelatedEssay about David Hume and Future Occurrences1116 Words   |  5 Pages nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;Hume asked, quot;what reason do we have in thinking the future will resemble the past?quot; It is reasonable to think that it will because there is no contradiction in supposing the future wont resemble the past. But it is also true that is possible for the world to change dramatically and our previous experience would be completely useless in judging future experience. We want to say that past experiences have been a good predictor. 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