PHILOS 1A03 Lecture Notes - Lecture 23: Baruch Spinoza, Friedrich Nietzsche, Stoicism

• School: McMaster University
• Department: Philosophy
• Course: PHILOS 1A03
• Professor: Barry Allen

Document Summary

Hume loathed bigotry and dogmatism; they support each other. We cannot give a satisfactory reason why we believe, after a thousand experiments, that a stone will fall or re burn (263) Belief is natural and compelling, but it is without reason and cannot be considered knowledge. If reason cannot con rm these two premises, then how can we take seriously that reason can explain the existence of god etc. Commit it then to the ames: for it can contain nothing but sophistry and illusion (264) We should never forget our natural inclination towards impossible beliefs. This should make any of us modest and reluctant to claim we know the truth and furthermore persecute others for not conforming to those beliefs. If we follow hume, philosophy must lose its rationalist view. We cannot expect more from reason and knowledge than they can honestly supply. According to hume, socrates was wrong knowledge won"t make us happy;