Hume vs Berkeley And Descartes

ChRIS said:

Is Hume's philosophy closer to Descartes' or Berkeley's?

ChatGPT said:

Hume’s philosophy shares elements with both Descartes' and Berkeley’s, but it diverges in significant ways, making him a distinct figure in the tradition. Here's how his ideas relate to both philosophers:

1. Empiricism vs. Rationalism:

   • Descartes: Descartes is a rationalist, believing that reason, not experience, is the ultimate source of knowledge. He argued that we can arrive at certain knowledge through clear and distinct ideas, independent of sensory experience.

   • Hume: Hume is an empiricist, which places him closer to Berkeley than Descartes. Hume argued that all knowledge comes from sensory experience (impressions), and our ideas are mere copies of those impressions. He is very much aligned with Berkeley’s emphasis on perception as the foundation of reality. However, Hume takes empiricism even further by casting doubt on the possibility of knowing anything beyond immediate sensory experiences and the associations between them.

2. The Nature of the External World:

   • Descartes: Descartes believed in an external world that exists independently of the mind. He believed that while our senses can be deceptive, reason could lead to certain knowledge of the material world. For him, the existence of the external world is ultimately guaranteed by God’s benevolence.

   • Berkeley: Berkeley famously denied the independent existence of the external world, arguing that existence is tied to being perceived ("esse est percipi"). He believed objects only exist as ideas in minds, and their continued existence depends on their being perceived by God.

   • Hume: Hume, while empirically grounded, was skeptical about the certainty of knowledge regarding the external world. He argued that we cannot have certain knowledge of objects outside of our immediate impressions. Instead, all we can know are habits or customs—patterns of experience. While Hume did not go as far as Berkeley in saying that objects only exist as perceptions, he did challenge the rationalist assumption of the mind's ability to access an objective reality outside of experience. His skepticism about causality and inductive reasoning further distances him from Descartes' confidence in reason.

3. The Role of God:

   • Descartes: Descartes saw God as a guarantor of clear and distinct perceptions, ensuring the truth of our reason-based knowledge.

   • Berkeley: Berkeley's philosophy relies heavily on the role of God, as the divine mind is the one that ensures the continued existence of the world when human minds are not perceiving it.

   • Hume: Hume, in contrast, is much more secular and skeptical about metaphysical claims, including those about God. He was critical of the idea of an orderly universe governed by causal laws, and he famously questioned the argument for God's existence based on the design of the world (his critique of the argument from design). His focus was on empirical observation and psychological tendencies, rather than divine guarantors.

4. The Self and Personal Identity:

   • Descartes: Descartes is famous for his cogito argument, which establishes the self as a thinking subject ("I think, therefore I am"). He sees the mind as distinct from the body and as the foundation of personal identity.

   • Berkeley: Berkeley didn't have a strong, detailed view of personal identity, but he viewed the self as a perceiving subject, existing in a continuous state of perception, which aligns more with his idealist view that all existence is tied to being perceived.

   • Hume: Hume, however, took a radically different approach, famously arguing in A Treatise of Human Nature that the self is nothing more than a bundle of perceptions. There is no underlying "I" or "self" that persists over time; rather, we are a collection of sensory experiences and mental states that flow in succession. In this sense, Hume is more skeptical about the stability of the self than Descartes, who believed in a permanent thinking subject.

In Summary:

Hume’s philosophy is closer to Berkeley’s in its emphasis on empirical experience and the idea that all knowledge arises from perception. However, Hume takes a much more skeptical stance than Berkeley, rejecting the notion of a divine mind sustaining the world and questioning the possibility of absolute knowledge. While Hume shares Berkeley's empiricism, his skepticism about causality and the external world, and his rejection of metaphysical certainty, mark him as more radical in his doubts.

Compared to Descartes, Hume is much more skeptical of the power of reason to uncover certain truths about the world and more focused on experience. Descartes’ dualism and foundational certainty about the self as a thinking subject are far from Hume’s view of a fragmented, constantly changing bundle of perceptions.