David Hume was a Scottish Philosopher (1711-176) who gained
fame and wealth as an essayist and historian. He spent a considerable amount of
time discussing the non-intellectual aspects of human experience and the
factors that create knowledge. His arguments were more in line with naturalist,
pragmatists, and positivists. He believed that the relations of ideas and matters
of fact are the greatest place to start a concept.
In his work, Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding the
section Origin of Ideas is of significant interest. He believed that the senses
are only representations of actual objects within the environment. There is a
fundamental difference between experiencing and the reflection of experience.
The experience and then the reflection lead to the formation of thoughts.
Impressions come from the senses. The senses of taste,
sight, smell, hearing, and touch draw information from the environment in
different ways. This information is used to make conclusions from the available
data. Multiple conclusions can be used to construct larger and larger
understandings of the environment. To
have full understanding one must conceptually blend the conclusions to make
stronger cognitive maps.
Rational thought is the process of understanding clearly,
what the five senses are bringing forward. Those who have the ability to sense
their environment more are able to draw greater amounts of information that
leads to higher complexities of thought. This creates an accuracy that is rooted
in rationality but beyond the sensory impressions of others.
Science is the testing of senses to ensure that the most
information is drawn from the environment, a type of cause and effect. Validity
increases when multiple people experience the same phenomenon and can describe
that phenomenon in rational ways (i.e. we all know what the color red is). The
problem is that this is a common experience but ignores the concept that red is
more accurately based in the reflection of light (a non-common experience that is
valid).
Learning and thought formation is a concept of awareness. Awareness
is processes of helping other people construct various data to come to rational conclusions. If they do not
understand the factors, cannot put them together, or are not willing to pay
attention they cannot come to the same conclusions. Open mindedness is a frame of mind, meaning
that one is open to different possibilities and makes rational judgments based
upon the quantitative (rational) analysis of those possibilities.
What are your assumptions not based in fact that hold you
back from understanding?
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