Skepticism (David Hume)

[Music] hello and welcome to philosophy vibe the channel where we discuss and debate different philosophical ideas so they were going to be discussing David Humes work on skepticism so then how familiar you with scepticism well broadly speaking scepticism is a feeling of doubt towards knowledge the idea that we cannot have any true or meaningful knowledge of the world or of reality as a whole all the knowledge we think we have is actually uncertain so we cannot truly know anything yes that's an accurate description David Hume claimed it was universal doubts on all our former opinions principles and faculties I see but what reason is there to doubt our knowledge well David Humes reasoning for skepticism or Piron ism as he described it who was largely down to the problem of induction what's there if we look at our knowledge what we know and what we deemed to be true is concluded through logical reasoning you will see that logical reasoning is comprised of deductive reasoning and inductive reasoning deductive reasoning is where if the premises are true you will reach an absolute certain conclusion so if a equals B and B equals C therefore a equals C however inductive reasoning is when if the premises are true you will reach a probable conclusion but it is not certain a common example used is that all known living organisms need water to survive therefore if we found a new living organism it would need water to survive probable are not certain right I think I understand so deductive truths are like geometry algebra or arithmetic truths we can reach by mere thought and reason but inductive truths are reached through experienced we have to perceive how the world works and we reach our conclusions this way correct so this is the problem of induction with inductive reasoning you can never reach certain knowledge just probable conclusions based on previous experiences experience can only assure us of what we have actually observed in the past or present we cannot reliably generalize beyond this we cannot use what we have experienced in the past to know what we will experience in the future inductive reasoning is not certain knowledge and so it will inevitably lead us to doubt whether the knowledge we think we have gained from inductive reasoning is true or not I think you need to explain this a bit more okay we will perceive the world and our surroundings and we will notice the causal interactions we will then gain knowledge of cause-and-effect and how things behave or how nature works our memories will store this and we will believe that this interaction will continue this way without our observation and beyond our existence correct a common example would be we have woken up every morning and seen the Sun Rise so tomorrow the Sun will rise yes I would agree but is that statement true the argument is through inductive reasoning so this is just a logical prediction based on experience this is not a certain conclusion we do not know that the Sun will rise tomorrow and just because we have previously experienced the Sun writing every other day does not mean it will necessarily rise tomorrow we can imagine without contradiction the contrary to this facts and if we can imagine this then it does not become an absolute truth or a certain matter of fact okay so for Hume the problem of induction meant that any knowledge gained from inductive reasoning cannot be true knowledge so here is where skepticism is brought forth most of our knowledge is through inductive reasoning Hume noticed how we base our knowledge on our experiences we see certain patterns and adopt the cause-and-effect principle last month I poured water on a seed in a plant group so this month if I pour water on a seed a plant will grow or a minute ago I threw a ball up and it came back down so if I now throw a ball up it will come back down yes that is generally how we find out empirical facts yes we believe our observations of one state of affairs provides evidence for another state of affairs but we have no certainty in adopting this line of thought I see so now we see the problem of cause and effect as any knowledge we claim to have through experience of cause and effect nothing but inductive predictions humor argued it is impossible to gain any knowledge through our experience of cause and effect all the facts we have about the world all cause-and-effect laws now get thrown into doubt think about it the foundation of all our knowledge is through experience the causal relationships we have perceived that this all that time however when we perceive a particular cause and effect we have no basis to claim a necessary connection if we can conceive of a different outcome without contradiction we have no reason to dismiss this outcome over the one we have already perceived let's say when I hit the white poor ball onto the black it sends the black ball up the table I've done this many times and perceived the same thing so I think the fault of the white ball creates motion in the black ball right but there is no reason for me to claim a necessary connection because it is perfectly conceivable that tomorrow I hit the white ball onto the black ball and the white ball bounces off leaving the black ball still so where does this lead this leads the skepticism Universal doubts we cannot gain any knowledge through our experiences our previous observations can only predict inductively it is not necessary that causal relations of the future must resemble causal relations of the past so we cannot truly know anything we cannot have any certain facts okay I understand here are my objections firstly if all knowledge can be doubted then is it right to say we can doubt the fact that we can doubt all knowledge surely this is absurd hmm good point perhaps we can borrow a line of Socrates and say the only true knowledge is that we know nothing okay I agree inductive reasoning does not lead to absolute certain facts but it does not mean that the conclusions it reaches are not true just because I cannot deductively proof the Sun will rise tomorrow does not mean an argument in favor of the Sun rising tomorrow is false so that means the Sun rising tomorrow is a possibility at the same time we have experience of the Sun rising which makes it a likely truth yes but ultimately it's not an absolute truth and it never will be fine but really do any skeptics take their theory seriously I mean a skeptic would doubt that gravity will continue tomorrow are they really expecting to wake up tomorrow to the possibility of them floating around how can one honestly live their lives in constant doubts you would never be able to plan for anything you would just think that life is in a constant state of chaos and anything that could be conceived to happen can happen at any time good point Hume did address this he argued that while the skeptic may flourish in schools and universities and in environments where we ponder our reality once they step outside of this environment their skeptic beliefs will vanish once they are back surrounded by physical objects and perceiving the supposed it cause-and-effect laws their skepticism will be left to one side Hume agreed that the skeptic had nothing to gain from proving their theory true it will not benefit Society or discourse inaction would cease and we would remain in a state of lethargy and indifference to our existence exactly so it's almost as though defeat in victory yes that's a good way to put it but that's all the time we have for now thank you for watching we hope you enjoyed the vibe what does everyone else think are you skeptics do you doubt your knowledge lets us know in the comments below don't forget to Like share and subscribe and help grow this channel see you all soon

Channel: Philosophy Vibe

Views: 28,011

Rating: 4.945055 out of 5

Keywords: Philosophy, Vibe, Philosophy Vibe, Skepticism, Scepticism, David Hume, Doubt, Knowledge, Problem of Induction, Inductive Reasoning, Deductive Reasoning, Socrates, No knoweldge, Epistemology, No belief, Pyrrhonism, Philosophy of Doubt, Hume

Id: YHfLZzS57PE

Length: 8min 10sec (490 seconds)

Published: Mon Mar 05 2018