CHAPTER ONE
Background to the Problem
1.0 Introduction
Once the task of the rationalists in
establishing “certain knowledge” derived from reasoning seemed set,
Locke’s attempt to revive empiricism was necessitated. This allowed him
to introduce into the scene the concept of tabula rasa or blank
slate upon which experience imprints. This in turn seemed to have
established the necessary foundations for Berkeley’s immaterialism to be
set so that he showed how Locke’s empiricism could lead to skepticism
of the external world and eventually, immaterialism. When David Hume
took the chair of the empiricist tradition, his own aim was to show how
science was misinformed in their supposition that induction was the
principle according to which laws of science could be derived. He sought
to show the fault in the reasoning by declaring that induction was only
based upon a uniformity in nature, one that is wrongly presupposed to
be valid. The conclusion was that Hume became a radical skeptic for we
eventually see how his position will lead to saying knowledge cannot be
attained.
1.1 The Philosophy of David Hume
Attempts of the continental rationalists
to assert with some force of conviction the claim that it was only
through reasoning that ultimate knowledge could be derived, as can be
seen in the rationalist theories of Descartes, Leibniz and Spinoza. They
unanimously, directly or indirectly subscribed to notions of innate
concept that helped them define their rationalism. Lockean empiricism
then appeared to shatter whatever ‘certain’ foundations they had
purportedly built. This was followed by Bishop George Berkeley’s
immaterialism. Consequently, David Hume wrote his famous Enquiry that
laid bare his own conception of the distinction between knowledge
derived from reasoning and experience. Though the foundations for this
has been gradually laid since the time of pre-Socratic philosophy, and
most especially in Descartes.
When John Locke developed his theory of empiricism, he divided our knowledge as being derived from sensations and reflection[i].
He claims that knowledge from reasoning and the mind came from
reflection while sensation had to do with knowledge acquired from the
external world through experience[ii].
Berkeley had come in a very controversial manner to undermine Lockean
theory of perception. Hume however came also with a very different
objective in mind to wit: “David Hume was fed up with the sorts of
abstract philosophical systems that had been constructed by Cartesians
and other such metaphysicians. He sought to criticize these (Cartesian)
systems by demonstrating that they rested upon nothing other than
“sophistry and illusion.”[iii]
The major point he wanted to argue is that as long as beliefs and
philosophies are ungrounded in observation and sensory experience, they
must remain little more than superstitious fantasies that has no
relation to reality.”[iv]
This gives us a hint into his latter conclusion of being an empiricist,
since he claims that any philosophy not grounded in observation will
not amount to anything. It means in essence that any system that is not
built on evidence gotten through the senses should be rendered to the
flames he was himself an empiricist after all.
Just like Locke had done, Hume divided
the contents of the mind into two, he “…distinguished among the contents
of the mind ‘impressions’ and ‘ideas’. The first correspond(s) to what
we should call sensations and perceptions, the second to what we should
call concepts, or ‘meanings’. When I perceive a horse, I have a
particular impression (in this case a visual impression); when I think
of a horse, I summon up an idea: this idea belongs to a class which
together constitutes the meaning (for me) of the word ‘horse’.”[v]
Just like Locke had done, Hume distinguished between these two contents
of the mind, for him this distinction lies in their respective ‘force’
or ‘liveliness’. The impression is received through the senses, and is
vivid and forceful during the moment of its reception. Idea on the other
hand is what remains thereafter, when the liveliness and force of the
impression have dwindled. However, Hume also describes ideas as
‘copies’, ‘representations’ and ‘images’ of impressions: they are “the
faint images [of impressions] in thinking and reasoning.”[vi]
Hume once again, like Locke made, a
distinction between simple and complex ideas, claiming that “all our
simple ideas in their first appearance are derived from simple
impressions, which are correspondent to them, and which they exactly
represent”[vii].
Complex ideas on the other hand are built from simple ideas; so that
all ideas can be traced to the impressions from which they were derived.
This implied that no term is meaningful unless there is an impression
from which its meaning can be inferred. The meaning of everything that
can be said consists in its empirical content. Laying the foundation for
the famous Humean line… “all ideas in the mind have corresponding sense impressions”[viii] For
instance, the notion of complex ideas in Locke can be seen here,
whatever obtains in the mind, must have been first in experience, even
and including dreams where we see the mind exerting its function in
being able to “abstract” several ideas it got from experience.
Hume went ahead to divide
all significant propositions into two kinds: empirical and logical. In
the first case the empirical derive what meaning they have from
experience; in the second case they speak only of the relations between
ideas.[ix] In his An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding the division was articulated thus:
“All the objects of human reason or
enquiry may naturally be divided into two kinds, to wit, Relations of
Ideas, and Matters of fact. Of the first kind are the sciences of Geometry, Algebra, and Arithmetic...[which
are] discoverable by the mere operation of thought...Matters of fact,
which are the second object of human reason, are not ascertained in the
same manner; nor is our evidence of their truth, however great, of a
like nature with the foregoing.”[x]
The famous Humean division between relations of idea and matters of fact is regarded to as ‘Hume’s Fork’[xi] which we shall attempt to describe in detail.
1.1.1 Hume’s Fork
As above mentioned, Hume divided all
significant propositions two, while the first was knowledge from
reasoning, known as knowledge from relations of ideas in Hume’s
philosophy; the other is knowledge from experience known as knowledge
from matters of fact.
1.1.1.1 Relation of Ideas
According to Hume, knowledge from
relation of ideas is all knowledge that is derived from reasoning. For
him, knowledge from relations of ideas is certain, true. It can only be
an analysis of the ideas that we have, ideas that must have been gotten
from only one other source. “…first objects of reason, are propositions
whose truth can be known by simply inspecting the ideas to see if the
asserted relation holds. They are truths that are true because of the
meanings of and the logical relationships between the ideas”[xii],
thus we see that knowledge from the relation of ideas is pertaining to
the notion of ‘ideas’, and due to that has to do with the mind, since
ideas are the only constituents of the human mind, therefore knowledge
from the relation of ideas is knowledge derived the human mind, its
demonstrative certainty and truthfulness is only a consequence of its
being processed by the mind on receiving it from experience.
Propositions that are used to express
knowledge from relations of ideas are not just true, they are said to be
necessarily true. The introduction of this notion of ‘necessity’ is
because of the fact that the otherwise of a statement from relations of
ideas cannot be derived except that we encounter a contradiction, all
knowledge from relation of ideas are either necessarily true, or
necessarily false once we attempt to derive its otherwise. Another way
to express this is to say that the denial of knowledge from relation of
ideas will involve a contradiction.
Examples of knowledge from relation of
ideas are found in mathematics, algebra, and geometry (what passed for
‘the sciences’ during Hume’s time). Mathematics truthfully asserts that
when a proposition is given, and its opposite is assumed, a
contradiction is generated. We shall consider examples of knowledge from
relation of ideas;
A square has four sides
This is an example of knowledge gotten
from the relation of ideas. To claim that a square does not have four
sides is to contradict the term.
Every whole is bigger than its part
This is also an example of knowledge
from relations of ideas. To claim it’s otherwise is to generate a
contradiction. For then we shall be claiming that a whole is not bigger
than its part. Other examples include; 2+2=4, every whole is bigger than
its parts, etc.
These sorts of statement are absolutely
certain, according to Hume. But its certainty still leads us to the
conclusion of its inability to tell us absolutely nothing about the
state of the world outside of our minds. The truths of mathematics,
geometry, and logic are truths that hold only in the abstract world of
thought. Nowhere in the actual world of concrete reality will you find
perfect circles or triangles, but it will always be certain.[xiii]
Which implies that Hume thought since these kinds of statements are
ideas and therefore restricted to the mind regardless of their
certainty, they would always remain confined to the walls of the mind,
they may be true and certain but they have nothing to do with experience
and therefore are said to be uninformative as they do not give us any
new knowledge of the external world. They only break down (analyze) what
was gotten through experience. So, Hume agrees with the rationalists
that there are certain, demonstrable truths. But what we find out in his
writings is that he differed with them regarding their importance. He
believed that “Relations of Ideas” were empty, devoid of information
about matters of fact and existence.[xiv] Since they are confined to the mind and cannot refer to things that exist outside of it.
1.1.1.2 Matters of Fact
They are the second objects of human
reason. The kinds of statements derivable from here are ‘true’ because
they correspond to a direct sense experience. Each matter of fact is
contingent; its negation is distinctly conceivable and represents a
possibility and therefore does not imply a contradiction. Since
dependent upon experience, its negation is not only conceivable but also
possible. Stated differently, they are propositions whose ‘truths’ can
only be known by experience. By making an inspection of the world to see
if they are true or false. In distinction from the relation of ideas
therefore, their own truthfulness cannot be derived from a mere
linguistic concepts used to express them, experimentation has to be
conducted before they can be checked.
As articulated in a historical passage
by W.T. Jones, according to him, all our knowledge of what, is called
‘objects’ is merely knowledge of spatiotemporal relations among simple
ideas or impressions (plus an act of the imagination). This kind of
knowledge according to Jones, Hume called ‘knowledge of matters of
fact.’ We can only know that, a particular data is followed by some
other data, or is above it, or is below it. We can never know for
certain that it as a matter of necessity has to be that way; this is
because every fact could always be otherwise. Its contrary being matters
of fact is still possible; it can never imply a contradiction. That the
sun will not rise tomorrow for instance is no less intelligible a
proposition, and implies no more contradiction than the affirmation that
it will rise. An attempt to show that it is false therefore will only
amount to a vain feat.[xv]
Examples of knowledge from matters of fact include the following;
Today is Saturday
This is an example of a statement from
matters of fact. We see that it can be false without any notions of
contradiction, today can be Monday without any contradiction being
generated.
Heavy objects fall when left unsuspended
This is another example of statements
from matters of fact. It is totally dependent upon experience and does
not have anything to do with the relations between the concepts involved
in the assertion.
1.2 The Problem of Induction
In his distinction between relation of
ideas and matters of fact, we see that Hume has shown that relation of
ideas though certain, really relies on matters of fact. This is because
it is merely an analysis of the relation between concepts which however
deductively certain do not inform us of anything more than matters of
fact. Matters of fact as explained is based upon experience: experience,
of course, of the external world, because this experience is not a priori,
it is not seen to be certain. The consequence of this is that we cannot
be totally certain of the knowledge we get from experience, not only
because its denial does not generate contradiction but also because it
is based upon the principle of cause and effect, also known as the
“causal principle”.
What the causal principle says is that
every event has a cause, and every cause must have an effect. It is from
here that matters of fact derives its nature. To justify matters of
fact, we would require a justification of the principle of cause and
effect. There is something wrong with the principle of induction, for it
only assumes a connection between all causes and all effects and from
there universal propositions due to this relationship are constructed. A
universe is defined. But the principle itself is problematic because it
falsely assumes that an event once observed to have occurred will
always give rise to a conclusion. Now the conclusion that was resulted
into is also falsely assumed to be the conclusion to always be derived
whenever the instance that effects the conditions for the cause obtains.
This is because matters of fact are not certain like relations of
ideas.
In the natural sciences, the scientist
observes some data in the external world, notes it down, forms a
hypothesis from there, and then proceeds to perform an experiment based
on the formulated hypothesis. Now once the experiment is concluded, a
conclusion is of course generated so that he makes a general, universal
statement that ought to take care of all the instances in which whenever
the experiment is formulated, similar conclusions as presently
generated will always be generated. For Hume, there is no justification
for making such inferences, for all that was observed were just
particular instances in the present moment. Nothing in this moments
imply that the same conclusions as were presently discovered would be
the same as will always be discovered, so there really is no
justification for making such an inductive conclusion.
Whenever we perceive, all we perceive is
the present moment as presented by experience. But we live our lives
with the mind of being able to infer the future from the present. Having
noticed in the past that certain conclusions proceed from certain
occurrences, we assume that similar conclusions will obtain whenever
such occurrences do. The point was the relation between what we
experience. For Hume our experience is based upon the principle of cause
and effect, that every event is a cause which has an effect, another
event that proceeds from it. According to Hume, if we could have noticed
an event happening and another supposedly proceeding from it, then we
ought to be able to have noticed as well a connection between the same
events. Since it is based upon experience, then to claim justification
for connecting two events happening after the other, we ought to be able
to account for a necessary connection that can be empirically
verifiable and connects these two.
1.2.1 The Justification of Induction
Despite the condition of the existence
of a necessary connection between cause and effect, there are some other
conditions that ought to obtain. The first is the spatiotemporal
priority which is the condition that every cause must be prior or come
before its effect. It is in its nature to cause the other and thus could
not possibly come any other time but before. The second condition is
the spatiotemporal contiguity that both events must be close to each
other in space, such that we can due to proximity in distance claim that
this event caused the other. And the third is the spatiotemporal
simultaneity which holds that cause and effect must be close to each
other in time, they must occur almost at the same time. One noticeable
thing about this criterion is that they are all discoverable through
experience, thus kind of justification that we seek for the last arm of
the causal principle is the idea of necessary connection.
Now, it has to be a feature
of experience, but experience cannot show us this connection for all we
observe is just an event ‘causing’ another event with the first three
conditions holding in quick succession. This is no sufficient reason
therefore to assume that such event will always cause such conclusions.
We do not have any empirical evidence of a connection between two events
therefore. Indulging us a bit, Hume asks that this connection should be
established through relations of ideas. But if such connection is
discoverable through the relation then it must be one of certainty as is
the character of the relation. This however is not the case, for it is
not a necessary truth that the sun will rise tomorrow as the possibility
of its not rising is not only conceivable but also possible. Cause and
effect “…seem conjoined, but (are) never connected”[xvi]
therefore the connection cannot be discovered from either means. If
this is so then it implies that it cannot be discovered at all since all
we have at our disposal are the two means; relations of ideas and
matters of fact.
“At most, it is a habit of our minds.
Because it is always possible that the future state of affairs in the
world will change, our habit of thinking in terms of cause and effect
really says nothing about the world itself. It only tells us about the
things that we ourselves anticipate on the basis of what we have already
observed about the world around us.”[xvii]