- Do you agree with Hume that we cannot know whether our ideas about reality are accurate?
Yes, I agree with Hume that our ideas about reality may not be accurate. Based on Humean Skepticism, it turns out that human reasoning is overly flawed. An individual’s perspective tends to determine one’s belief. The belief of something seems to be built upon historical experience and perceptions (Valasquez 371). From Hume’s perspectives, he explains that all knowledge tends to be derived from an individual impression. An individual’s impression is usually influenced by what one hears, what one smells, what one sees, what one tastes among various other feelings.
Therefore, with special knowledge being derived from the mentioned impressions, then it is evident that our ideas and perception about reality might be very wrong(Valasquez 371). To begin with, it’s human nature to always dwell on the consensus. The truth is determined by what many people believe in. Therefore, it is typical for one to believe what he/she hears most. As a result, this perception is bound to make one have a false reality about a particular situation or object. A typical example is the shape of the earth.
Everyone believes that the earth is a sphere. That is what most of us have been taught in schools, and we have carried that illusive reality through our lives. Few people have raised a concern that the earth may be flat. And what if the earth is flat and it’s not a sphere. I believe the consensus belief that the earth is a sphere is just a perception derived from what we have heard. Therefore, Hume’s argument that we cannot point out whether our idea about reality is accurate is correct.
Works cited
Valasquez, Manuel. “Philosophy Texts With Readings”. Ebooks.Cengage.Com, https://ebooks.cengage.com/#!/reader/729904ab-c767-4ad3-8b42-99c0656d40f2/page/page-e4dc4e6b-a87e-4144-a900-7512678eaede.