Hume's attitude on custom in enquiry: Philosophy Forums

Hume's attitude on custom in enquiry
What do you think Hume's attitude is towards custom

Hume's attitude on custom in enquiry

imran89
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Posted 03/23/08 - 01:06 PM: Subject: Hume's attitude on custom in enquiry	#1
David Hume in his work "an enquiry on Human Understanding" proclaims that "custom is the great guide of human life". My question is that what is his attitude towards custom. Surely, it isn't merely something that is used to replace the void that was left by reason in his arguments. I have read the book twice but am unable to trace out his attitude. However, our professor wants us to write an essay on this vague topic. anyone who has come across any research paper on his theme or has formulated an opinion on this question, help me out. I would be very grateful. Edited by imran89 on 03/24/08 - 01:06 AM

Caldwell
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Posted 03/24/08 - 12:43 AM:	#2
His attitude is, we can't help but follow it. "Habit" is something we cannot choose to do or not to do. It's how we understand it that matters.
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despinozist
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Posted 03/24/08 - 11:01 AM:	#3
I suppose one problem is that "how we understand" can be viewed as a habit. If that is the case, then we've reduced all human endeavor to something like Cartesian Automata. Therefore, "how we understand," within the Humean framework, merely becomes "that we understand." This destroys the "certainty" of future inquiry, turning it all into probability, which is itself nothing more than a "habit" we are only inclined to believe we understand. The past can be viewed the same way. It isn't that we truly do understand anything, but only that we "grasp" or "comprehend" how things, as we currently see them, fit together in a way which makes sense to us. We "understand" something, but "how" we do, too, is closed off from us. We simply understand, and our "understanding" is a habit of ours.
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despinozist
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Posted 03/24/08 - 11:14 AM:	#4
The point is that "reason" as we define it has nothing to do with the World (call it the void, if you want). Strictly speaking in terms of "custom" or "habit," the World Hume describes is nihilistic. He's a compatibilist, which means that "free will" in his sense of the term necessarily explains human striving, inquiry, living, in a way which gives meaning to human existence. For Hume, the passions are the primary judge of final causes, or ends, inasmuch as seeing them as such. Reason continues to dissect and analyze; the passions arbitrarily become satisfied.
_____________________ Understanding is the first and only basis of virtue.

jdrw
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Posted 03/24/08 - 02:01 PM:	#5
I think the "custom" issue in Hume is in regard to the "problem of induction" a.k.a "Hume's problem." His attitude toward it is that in fact custom is how we get through daily life in the world. The "problem" is that it cannot be shown that what has happened in the past (such as the sunrise) is logically required to happen in the future. Through custom and habit we act as if the world will work in the present and in the future as it has worked in the past, but since empirical reality is contingent, there is no logical reason that it must do so. Cheers. jd
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