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Contrast of the Ideas of Kant & Hume

Hume believed that all knowledge was restricted to ideas or impressions, feeling that the mind was the sum total product of a host of perceptions accumulated over time. Other than what is directly observable, there is no knowledge. Hume also believed that God could not exist, because God is only an idea in the mind of man. Kant, in contrast, opposed HumeÆs skepticism and felt that pure reason was of use in understanding the world. However, he challenged Enlightenment thinkers because he did not feel reason was of unlimited scope. Morality for Kant, involved law, i.e., the categorical imperative and the use of human will.

For Kant, moral judgments are expressions of practical as opposed to theoretical reason. Practical reason or rational will derives its principles of action in the human being from its own rational nature. This is why Kant would argue that HumeÆs ethical theory, based on feeling, is not really a moral philosophy at all. For Hume, morality was more properly felt than judged. For example, is someone acts in a way that pleases, it pleases us, what Hume would call a calm passion. Likewise, something beautiful brings about this same feeling. To Hume, unlike Kant, morality is a matter of feeling, made aware by instincts or sympathy, and modulated in accordance with general rules and conventions of justice.

Hume made man the center and whole of the universe. Hume argues that all man could know was his own ideas because there could be no material or spiritual substance causing these ideas. In this view, Hume argued that manÆs ideas, including morals, arise from unknown causes and that man is nothing more than his ideas. In essence, Hume maintains that it remains impossible to prove even the existence of the human mind. All that can be proven is that ideas or impressions come one after the other. In HumeÆs philosophy, there is no material world and no mind, just a series of impressions. For good or bad...

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Contrast of the Ideas of Kant & Hume. (1969, December 31). In LotsofEssays.com. Retrieved 18:02, March 28, 2024, from https://www.lotsofessays.com/viewpaper/1710896.html