David Hume and Schumacher - Essay Example

David Hume and Schumacher: A Comparative Analysis Today’s world experiences an unprecedented attention being paid to the understanding of man’s ways of life and his behavior. People are more curious about knowledge than at any other point in time. Amongst these outpour of interest in knowledge, subjects examining the causes and origins of theories, ideas and concepts and objects receive more attention than those exploring new avenues. Sciences, whether pure such as in Chemistry and Botany, or descriptive, such as those studying human behavior and societal development are experiencing the largest intake of students and scholars ever experienced in time. In this research, philosophy has come to play a very critical role in the understanding of human life. It finds its applicability from simple life questions such as the definition of terms to more complex debates about the ultimate purpose of life as well as what is real and what is vague. One of the greatest philosophers ever seen in history was David Hume (1711-1776). His essays and publications are now used by scholars both in Philosophy and other academic disciplines. The purpose of this paper is to examine his views and arguments from the viewpoint of another great philosopher, Schumacher, E.F (1911-1977). David Hume is regarded as one of the greatest philosophers to have ever lived. His essays, Moral, Political and Literary are recognized as a great contribution to the 18th Century Philosophy and the succeeding years. Similarly, several outstanding philosophers such as Immanuel Kant and Jeremy Bentham have confessed being directly influenced by his works. Similarly, Charles Darwin attested to Hume as a central influence (Hume 34). Hume is honored for having written in probably every branch of Philosopher but more so in the area of human science. Some critics have referred to him as ‘our politics, religion and also our economy’. Hume’s essays revolve round all spheres of life and it would be impossible to precisely summarize his views in a single work. Hence, for the purposes of examining him under the eyes of Schumacher, the author has chosen two of his most important views as expressed in almost all of his essays and works. These are wound around two concepts; those regarding cause and effect and those regarding the self and identity. Regarding cause and effect, or causality, he believes that, as all humans do, that there is no event without a cause, and that this conception is inborn, not taught, or induced in to us. Referring to his predecessors, Hume questions what the relationship between cause and effect really means (Guyer 26). By giving real life examples, he concludes that our perception of connecting two events is not based on a close scrutiny but by the closeness of the two events. He states that it is impossible to experience the connection between the two events. We only experience the events themselves but not the actual causing. Therefore, this causal theory is a mere construct in our minds without any absolute foundation on experience. If his view is correct, many scientists, who consider themselves as searching for causes, would need to redefine themselves. Secondly, Hume debates the existence of the self. The ancient example of a ship tied to a harbor where families brought their children to play on the decks rouses a question. After many years of aging, several parts of the ship, and finally, every single chip of the ship are replaced, such that there is nothing left of the original ship. A question rises on the originality of that ship, on whether the sign on the ship should read, “This is the famous ship which fought many battles”, or “this is a replica of that ship”. One would conclude that it is the same ship since its identity has remained unchanged over the years. Similarly, Biology teaches that every molecule of the body is replaced after 7 years (Schumacher 19). Yet after those years, we still maintain our identity and even given the different experiences we go through, we can still say that “I am the same person I was Seven years ago.” Hume wonders what has persisted for these seven years that our identity remains the same (Hume 48). Being an empiricist, he blatantly dismisses the notion of the self as held by philosophers, saying that we can never experience the self through our senses. He states that even in our most inner meditations, what we experience is not the self, but sensations and perceptions. He advocates that human beings should conceive themselves only as perceptions existing in a space that is the mind and the self. He points out the presence of such perceptions is the very essence of the self; that in case there are no perceptions, the self would be non-existent, much more like the galaxy would be in the absence of stars. Hence, we are perceptions and ideas swirling together in a mass, and where this swirling together takes place is an absolute mystery, unknown to anyone. The two views wind around some strong arguments on Hume’s part, some of which are analyzed here. Firstly, he argues that humans only know what they experience now, through the senses, only being able to infer about everything else. By this, he dismisses the earlier philosophical views about innate ideas, believed to be existing in a human’s mind before they are born. He points out that a baby’s mind is clear, and only acquires information and knowledge from what they experience. Hume divides our minds’ perceptions into ideas, or thoughts and impressions; the latter being the more vivid sensations as presented to us through the senses, and the former being less lively, moments when reflect on any of the sensations experienced in impressions. He believes that our sensations are more real and more accurate as compared to our thoughts or ideas, noting that “the liveliest thought is inferior o the dullest sensation”. Besides, he states that a continued existence of anything arises from the combination of attributes of objects and attributes of imagination. He notes that coherency and constancy are the two main qualities of continued existence; coherence being the regular dependence of objects on each other and constancy being the moment when the perceptions of objects remain constant even after perception is interrupted. After publishing his first work, “A Treatise of Human Nature” in 1739, Hume seems to have always strived to convince us that among other things, human behavior and choices were based not on logical reason but more on our desires and cravings. This is the thinking behind his inevitable statement that “Reason is, and ought to only be the slave of the passions” (Hume, 1939). He strongly holds this view in most of his essays, which he defends fearlessly. Hume is also credited with the comprehensive publication of the History of England, which describes the History of England from Julius Caesar onwards. Some of his critics argue that he was more of an historian than a philosopher. Hume is recognized as the father of Modern Skepticism, the school of thought that examines the meaning systems of the world from a doubtful or skeptic point of view. Hume can be seen as a philosopher attempting to create a science of human behavior, as seen in his very critical and sometimes skeptical essays examining the human nature psychology. Schumacher, E. F. was an economic philosopher, and statistician in the United Kingdom. His 1977 publication “A Guide for the Perplexed” is a comprehensive analysis of the nature of human life, described by most of his contemporaries as an exaplantation of the philosophy that underlies his best known work, “Small is Beautiful”. Though he seems to favor Science and the prevailing Scientific Spirit of his time, he opposes the methods used in such processes, arguing that such methods have become corrupt and unreliable over time, hence losing their objective purpose. He contrasts Instructional Science to Descriptive Science, noting that Descriptive Science is more superior to Instructional Science (Hume 58). This is because Descriptive Science deals with things that can be physically experienced whereas Instructional Science deals with the nature of Systems. It will be noted that Schumacher was initially a devout atheist who later drew much comfort and inspiration from religion, both Catholicism and Buddhism. For the purpose of this essay, we will refer to the older Schumacher, who has gained religious influence. Schumacher differs with Hume in several ways. From his point of view, David Hume will be dismissed as another skeptic philosopher who has concerned himself with the conveying of the sad opinion that … Hume is known as an empiricist, believing that if you can’t prove existence empirically, there is no such existence. This view is contradictory. His division of perceptions as ideas or thoughts and impressions will be highly questioned before the latter Schumacher. For instance, regarding his view about the missing shade of blue, Hume poses an exception in his argument about the generation of ideas and thoughts, a situation which brings a serious problem into his empirical approach. Hume begins by asserting that it is possible for a man who has never seen a particular shade of blue to define the color, if several shades of blue were presented before him in succession. His dismissal of the situation as a rare exception brings a contradiction in his case. Similarly, the dismissal of God as a magnified idea in people’s mind does not stand the test of time (Guyer 35). In the two cases, Hume uses deductive reasoning to oppose an already popular belief. His argument that the idea of God comes from the magnification of goodness, knowledge, love and greatness in to infinity can only be dubbed as wonderful psychological theories full of rhetoric but empty in content. It is of absolute necessity to note that the all famous philosophy of “we learn from the known to the unknown” applies universally. The treasure, as well as the time bomb, in such a statement is that the human mind has a way of linking every new experience to an experience in the past. Take the invention of the bicycle, which developed through progressive stages of creativity until a standard model was obtained. Every new bicycle created was in its part unique and different, not just a replica of the previous models with an added creativity. The same is the case of the missing shade of blue. The man will be able to generate that specific shade and even many more basing on his past experience. Similarly, the identification of UFOs in the 1950s poses a serious problem to Hume. The human mind was able to describe the shape and nature of these objects even though nothing like them had ever been seen before. From this, it is true that whatever idea would be invented by any person, we will always find a link to it. This does not necessarily imply that this people have generated the ideas by combining present perceptions, such as imposing horns on a horse, or transforming a mountain in to a heap of gold; but rather, the tendency of us humans to always find a link of similarity between new experiences and old ones. Similarly, as he attempts to explore the possible errors found in cause and effect, there is an inherent assumption that what we know by our senses is invariably correct and accurate. Again, take the case of a police officer who walks in a room, and finds a man standing, with blood in his shirt and holding a blood stained dagger, and another man lies dead, with blood all over his body. The police officer arrests the man with the knife, and after apprehending him, he confesses to having stabbed the dead man. The suspect is arraigned in court and charged with homicide, for which he receives life imprisonment. What both the police officer and the judge do not know is that this man did not commit the homicide. On the contrary, a few minutes before the police officer arrived at the scene, the man had found the actual murderer, who is his only son, contemplating the consequences of such a crime. He then ordered the youth to escape and spare his life from the prison, while he covers up for his crime. In such a scenario it is not possible to accept experience as the only faculty capable of telling the truth. Therefore, empiricism as a concept becomes a less credible means of knowledge. Schumacher points out that there is an importance of being critically aware of one’s presumptions (Guyer 47). He adds that this cannot be achieved through the mere human senses but by a deeper and specialized effort to be self-aware. Materialistic scientism, which is closely related to empiricism, does not recognize the importance of such higher levels. Secondly, concerning his view of cause and effect, Hume holds the view that animals and humans share some inferential abilities. According to him, animals are able to infer between cause and effect just like humans do. However, they don’t reason like humans, but rather are accustomed to such. He admits the superiority of the human mind to that of the animals in terms of memory, ability to make long deductions and the ability to depart from one’s biases. Schumacher will agree with him in stating that the humans are more self-aware than animals. Schumacher, being a philosopher who believes that there are things which exist outside our experiences points out that among the four hierarchical kingdoms, man’s kingdom is the best, with life, self-consciousness and consciousness (Schumacher 1974). Schumacher also notes that removing the vertical sphere of the universe, there would be increased moral relativism and utilitarianism. Schumacher seems to be stating that even in the society, there are men and women who are higher and better placed than others. In such a case the privileged few should never take advantage above the others but should work to ensure that they bring the others to their levels. He agrees that appreciating the different levels of being provides morality. For one to go higher in the structure, he must develop his higher faculties so as to understand such things. Conclusively, it can be seen that there are more ways of knowing about our surrounding besides our senses. Besides the prevailing popular views and possible objections, both Schumacher and Hume’s essays have stood the test of time. They have managed to convince the readers on other points of view. Works Cited Guyer, Paul. Knowledge, Reason and Taste: Kant’s Response to Hume. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2008. Print. Hume, David. A Treatise of Human Nature. Boston: Mobile Reference, 2010. Print. Schumacher, Friedrich. A Guide for the Perplexed. London: Random House Publishers, 2011. Print Read More