Skepticism

skepticism-------According to Hume, we only very rarely have rational justifications for the things we believe to be matters of fact. There is simply no way for us to actually examine the external world - all we have is our own psychology and our reactions to what we experience.

Instead, much of what we claim as knowledge can actually be traced back to custom or habit, not empirical demonstration Applies to objects, but also to reality itself, concluding that our statements about our selves, our shared world, and our reality itself can be based on very little that is rationally justified. As a result, he argued that an extreme form of skepticism is the only possibly justified position to take.

Hume's skepticism, for he says that we cannot be certain a thing, such as God, a soul, or a self, exists unless we can point out the impression from which the idea of the thing is derived.

IMpressions/ideas-----Hume believes that all human knowledge comes to us through our senses. Our perceptions, as he called them, can be divided into two categories: ideas and impressions. Impressions are sensory impressions, emotions, hear, see, feel, while ideas are thoughts related to these impressions. We build up all our ideas from simple impressions by means of three laws of association: resemblance, contiguity, and cause and effect.

Rationalism-----is a point of view that states that reason plays the main role in understanding the world and obtaining knowledge. Rationalists believe there are ultimate truths, which are capable of being discovered by reason. Rationalists tend to be inclined towards the idea that there are a priori principles,

Clear and distinct ideas----To know that God exists, one must trust the clear and distinct idea of God; but, to know that clear and distinct ideas are true, one must know that God exists and does not deceive man. Descartes the rationalist rejected magic, but he failed to see that his ontological proof is word-magic based on the superstition that things can be determined by ideas and thoughts

Dualism-----------separation of mind and body makes it difficult to account for the apparent interaction of the two. In ordinary experience, it surely seems that the volitions of my mind can cause physical movements in my body and that the physical states of my body can produce effects on my mental operations. But on Descartes's view, there can be no substantial connection between the two, nor did he believe it appropriate to think of the mind as residing in the body as a pilot resides within a ship

Empiricism--- Empiricists believe that all we will ever know for certain, is found through what we observe in the world and universe. Empiricists tend to emphasise a posteriori knowledge, which