Sem.

Edmer John Caballes

July 27, 2012

An Attack on David Humes Skeptical Philosophy

During this modern era, faith and reason are considered as distinct and different. There are people who are more concern with the principle to see is to believe. And I thought this principle is applicable to an elementary mindset only, like, I wouldnt believe in monsters unless I could see them. However the world becomes more modern and that principle affects even the existence of God. In fact, there were some intellectualists who expounded this belief by means of abstract sciences. One of those were David Hume. He was a British empiricist. He had an idea that the only objects of the abstracts sciences are quantity and number, and beyond these bounds are mere sophistry and illusion. However there are existing objects of our senses which are not perceivable by our five senses. They are many, like, air, anxiety, love, sadness, divinity and many more. Although some of them are perceivable but still they are inexplicable. With this, David Hume posited the idea that anything which cannot be demonstrated and beyond the abstract sciences is a mere illusion. Therefore they dont exist because they are non-sensical. In this argument, Hume made an attack on divinity. He said that it is an illusion and he explained it well. With this, I will just construct his argument through syllogism. He said that beyond the boundary of abstract sciences is a mere illusion Divinity is beyond the abstract sciences. Therefore divinity is a mere illusion. However David Hume, might be ignorant about the principle of noncontradiction. He did not look at his idea that it already fall in illusion. He had also an idea that everything which cannot be defined clearly is indeed nothing.

With this idea, supposedly Hume is bringing with him a calendar while seating on a chair and drinking a glass of coffee together with me, I would ask him can you see that numbers in reality? Can you ask the first person who discovered the numbers that why is it that a vertical line symbolizes one? If number 1 is only a symbol then where is the real one? Why is it that we use 1 2 and 3 symbolize one two and three. Can we use instead color green as the number one or any color to represent the numbers? And lastly, why is it that I cannot buy number one in reality? If his propositions cannot answer my questions clearly then he must admit his argument is also a mere illusion. I know those questions are difficult to answer. I would also admit that I cannot answer them better. The concept of number was just taught to me when I was a child. In fact, I really understood because I believed in it regardless of its nonexistence. Number is just one of the truths which beyond the train of reasoning. It is like the divinity which is beyond reason but under the yoke of faith.