David Hume’s Philosophical Works
The world as we see it today is far too complex for any individual to grasp everything that is going on around him. So it is indeed a welcome development that we have people and organizations specializing in certain niches. And in their coordinated efforts i.e. from the work in different niches we have been able to make tremendous progress. This is perhaps the fundamental reason why – when one analyses the timeline of man’s achievements; the last century or so has seen more innovation and progress than when compared to the previous years as a whole. However in this complex age there is no theme, science or subject that happens to hold the human attention for prolonged periods of time. To be more specific there are far too many developments taking place and in this whirl wind of events only one thing can be confirmed, i.e. the world is dynamic and is never likely to go back to the relatively static nature during the years before the scientific revolution. Then again we have to acknowledge the fact that man has reached where he is now, due to the progressive accumulation of the cascading effects of certain works by men who specialized in an art from that no longer occupies a center stage. This exquisite art form can be best described as philosophy. As mentioned before, there were quite a few men who specialized in philosophy and it’s no easy task to pick out the most influential amongst them.
George Berkeley though being of British origin is commonly acknowledged as the first great American Philosopher (Flage, 2005). He popularized the saying – ‘esse is percipi’, which meant – ‘to be is to be perceived’. This emphasis on perception formed the corner stone of most of his philosophical work. At his core he was an immaterialist i.e. according to his philosophical beliefs no form of matter existed. This view of his can be more ascertained by his belief that – everything that exists is either a form of mind or matter depends on the form of mind for its existence. His most extreme view was that all physical objects are an inherent mental perception i.e. all physical objects are solely composed of ideas alone. Apart from philosophy, George Berkeley also wrote on vision, mathematics, economics, medicine and Newtonian Mechanics.
Rene Descartes is often considered by many to be the father of modern philosophy (Skirry, 2008). He popularized the saying – ‘Cogito ergo sum’, which means – ‘I think, therefore I am’ (Wikipedia). He was very popular during his time and holds influence to this day. He was the first philosopher to oppose Scholastic philosophy. As the Scholastic philosophy was prone to doubt since it was fully based on sensation. Descartes went on to prove the Scholastic philosophy wrong by assuming that everything with the slightest bit of doubt as absolutely false. In his consequent search for something that certainly existed, he realized that he could think and so he certainly did exist. In this manner he managed to prove that god existed and so did all his creations. Descartes also had other works that mentioned an entity within the human body yet not a part of it. He went on to say that both these elements could influence each other too.
Gottfried Leibniz philosophical works have interested many. However he has managed to make a variety of contributions in different fields and hence it is important to derive a central theme from all his works together. His core work seems to suggest that god had ordained a pre established harmony among all the things in the universe. This is what justifies his rather contradictory belief that the universe only consists of god and non composite and immaterial soul like entities called as monads (Burnham, 2005). This means that all other physical objects and causative factors are all illusions.
The German philosopher Immanuel Kant was an 18th century philosopher who made significant contributions to ethics, aesthetics, metaphysics etc. His philosophical works tended to hold the ability of the human mind to reason in high esteem (Burnham, 2005). He stated that it is the inherent ability of judgment that enables human beings to recognize and accept beauty and most of all to see the world in its ordered form and purpose.
I personally consider David Hume to be the best and most influential amongst all the popular philosophers. A part of the reason lies in the fact that most popular philosophers had to at some point or the other engage with the philosophical works of David Hume. Then again it is generally accepted that philosophical works are subjected to much criticism. However Hume was unique because a lot of philosophers had to agree with the findings of Hume and most importantly he influenced many significant personalities with his work. Some of the important people who identify with the works of David Hume are – Adam Smith, Charles Darwin and Thomas Huxley (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy).
Processing your request, Please wait....
