David Humes Thoughts On Empiricism Essay Example for Free

David Humes Thoughts On Empiricism Essay One of the most notable figures in the history of western philosophy was Scottish philosopher David Hume. Hume was widely known for his views on Empiricism. Empiricism has been pondered since the beginnings of philosophy by many famous figures, from Aristotle to John Locke. (Wikipedia) Empiricism claims that human knowledge is founded on observation and use of the five senses. Hume published a literary work titled Enquiry concerning Human Understanding. This had a profound impact on empiricist philosophy. (Heter) In section 2 of the Enquiry concerning Human Understanding, titled Of the Origin of Ideas, Hume makes distinctions about impressions and ideas. Simply stating how a memory obtained from the central nervous system can never reach the level of raw, vividness that the original impression had made. An example of this concept can be something along the lines of experiencing free fall. We have all experienced free fall at some point in our lives. Simply recalling that moment can never fully allow us to grasp the gut wrenching excitement of pure gravity. An interesting thought brought forward in section 2 is The Copy Principle. Hume states But though our thought seems to possess this unbounded liberty, we shall find, upon a nearer examination, that it is really confined within very narrow limits, and that all this creative power of the mind amounts to no more than the faculty of compounding, transposing, augmenting, or diminishing the materials afforded us by the senses and real life experience†¦(Enquiry, Section II) In laymans terms, imagination of the human mind might be perceived as limitless. However, in  reality, it is really a combination of sensory information and real life experiences. To this end, Hume believes that there are no truly original ideas. Everything we can conceive is a copy or modification of material afforded to us by our surroundings. Examples of this can be found all around us. Such as the design of a plane matching the shape of a bird or Velcro behaving as burdock burrs. (Bloomberg) An interesting point Hume brings to our attention is the Blind Man Argument. Hume claims that a person born blind has no notions of what color is. If you grant that individual the ability to see, you present him with a new channel for ideas. Without this inlet, he would have no idea what color is. Therefore, color must come from the senses. (Enquiry, Section II) One might object to Humes copy principle by stating that original ideas are created quite frequently. A perfect example of this is the telephone. There was no object in the known universe that was able to transmit encoded sound waves through electrical wire over vast distances to a receiver before the telephone. This invention came into existence through pure innovation. The blind man argument presents an error. Just because a blind man cannot make an association between the word red and the color red doesnt mean that they have never seen it before. Perhaps the man has seen the color red countless times in his dreams. However, without having another individual identify the same color and help him form the association between the word and the color, the blind man will never know what red means. Countering my objection to The Copy Principle, all the natural resources we are afforded on earth  can be combined, transformed or restructured to create something else. Basically, everything we have created can be broken down to the raw materials found within our environment. This makes it impossible to create something truly new. The telephone is simply a combination of oil, copper, aluminum, silicone, ect. In defense of The Blind Man Argument, people born without the ability to see, claim they see nothing. They might understand how the color spectrum works but they will never be able to sense what the actual color looks like. For one to know the answer to this debate, he or she have the ability to see and be blind at the same time. Hume certainly brings up some interesting concepts. For this reason, scholars have been studying his ideas for centuries. Empiricism and rationalism are in constant disagreement. Both philosophical notions are extremely hard to disprove. Works Cited Hennighausen, Amelia, and Eric Roston. 14 Smart Inventions Inspired by Nature: Biomimicry: Nature as RD Lab. Bloomberg. com. Bloomberg, 19 Aug. 2013. Web. 20 Sept. 2013. Heter, T. Storm. Empiricism. First Philosophy: A Handbook for Beginning Philosophers. N. p. : n. p. , n. d. 15-21. Print. Hume, David. Section II: Of the Origin of Ideas. An Enquiry concerning Human Understanding. N. p. : n. p. , 1784. N. pag. Print. Wikipedia contributors. David Hume. Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, 30 Aug. 2013. Web. 21 Sep. 2013. Wikipedia contributors. Empiricism. Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, 15 Sep. 2013. Web. 21 Sep. 2013.

Wherefore The Maintenance Of Liberty :: essays research papers fc

The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants. It is its natural manure. -Thomas Jefferson On a cold, miserable day in the North Caucasus, the only one who does not look dismal is Russian General Mikhail Malofeyev. He is dead. His body is flag draped and on open display before a dark stand of pines. He is encircled by his mourning officers clad in hulking, camouflage coats. "Russia Admits Chechnya Losses Growing," says the news headline. Military body counts since the counting of them began bear little relationship between actual and reported casualties. Russians officially admit to 910 dead since the war restarted in October of 1999. The Russian Committee of Soldiers' Mothers, who gets its accounting from soldiers, their families, and military hospitals, thinks that 3,000 is a far more likely figure. Interestingly, NTV, which is a local Russian private investigating network and which reports on military news contradictions, has been kicked out of the military press reporting pool. This Chechan conflict is just another example of an ill equipped militia fighting one of the most powerful militaries in the world to a standstill. This is as it was with the Afghans who were even so primitive that they had to forge rifle barrels in their own backyard furnaces. The Afghani ultimately kicked the Soviet invaders out of their homeland. This was just like the Warsaw ghetto Jews, who kept the murderous Nazi's at bay for almost a month with only a handful of small arms before the Jew's valiant final defeat. History repeats with the citizen patriots of Lexington and Concord, who demonstrated with their blood the power and the purpose behind the Second Amendment to the Constitution of the then new United States of America. The Second Amendment confidently guarantees that We the People will ever remain free. Pro Second Amendment people always talk a good game. But what would happen should Americans ever needed to put this right to arms to the test. There are over 20,000 gun laws on the books. These "laws" include outright bans, registration, confiscation, waiting periods, quotas, and any other abhorrent violation that the ruling class imposes just to probe if Americans can be intimidated into servitude. For note, that test of submission happened a while back while the citizens slept. The citizens have already been graded, and by the criteria of their forefathers, they have failed miserably.

She Never Lies

The whole room goes silent. This is what I've been waiting for. See this is what its like at my school, to fit in you either act yourself and if that's good enough you're lucky, if not some serious sucking up is to be done. And that's what Joanne did. I, myself, I'm an outgoing, semi-confident girl and I care about how I look and appear towards others. Basically I just like to have fun. Now Joanne and I are in the same class and have a bit of a giggle now and then. We are essentially best friends. Well we used to be anyway. Right, I'll start from the beginning; Joanne was just a shy, self-conscious girl who underestimated herself but was perfect how she was because all her friends, including me, loved her very much. Then they came along. Basically they are the other people in our drama club. Most of them are older than we are and most of us have fun and fit in as we are, she would as well if she didn't think she had to change herself to be ‘accepted'. I'll explain to you what she does, especially around older guys. See when she's around guys she forgets that any of her girly friends exist and it's just like she thinks she doesn't need us around them, just because she likes being the centre of attention. To get the older girls to like her she sucks up to them as much as she can it's just unbelievable. We, her original friends, hate the new her, and just cannot stand it. Last week everyone in the drama club were getting all excited because we had been invited to a summer party in the holidays at a guys house. All us girls were planning what to wear and how we should do our hair, blah blah blah, stuff like that. Joanne on the other hand, couldn't care less about our little girly chats and goes off with the boys yet again, and just abandons us. Now it's starting to get out of hand. After a few days of being ignored I thought I would stand up to her and calmly explain what she's done. She denies it all, takes everything I say the wrong way and puts everything out of proportion and turns everything around so that it's all about her. Which it really isn't. I just wish that all her ‘new friends' knew what she was really like and what she says about them behind their backs. I want to tell them all, but they will never believe me. To them, she is innocent. Finally Joanne is not in school, probably ‘ill'. That means that me and my best best mate, Lucy, get to talk to our drama club in private at our last get together before the summer. Sorted. The only problems we could conjure up by doing this is: A – them believing us, and B – them ending up hating us for saying such things about Joanne in the first place. We took that risk and went for it. They didn't seem too hateful they understood our reasoning, and the fact we have known her for longer and we made a deal. They get her drunk at the party and get it all out of her, if not then we are in for complete humiliation. This will be interesting. The summer was great just my friends and I. Obviously that didn't include Joanne, she was way too busy ‘doing drama' or whatever excuse she could think of. We all knew she was with them. In the end, we just didn't bother calling her to meet up because we knew she would have other arrangements. A few days before the party some of the drama guys asked me, Lucy and some others if we wanted to meet up. They said that it was important plus they hadn't seen us in ages, but we soon realised that was just a white lie to get us to come out. So naturally we accepted and went to the park. It was fun hanging out with everyone again, Friday was looking better and better to me. After I got home from my fun and exhausting day, I find that I am ambushed by texts and calls from Joanne. She was having a go at me for going out with ‘her' friends without her. I just ignored her because I thought she was being a bit of a hypocrite to be honest, and by that time I'd had enough. The deal looked more promising by the minute. It's Friday, and I am so eager for tonight to begin. I manage to control myself and go out shopping for a new outfit with Lucy. Clearly that took us all day, so when I got home it was time to make myself gorgeous. It took me just over an hour to get ready, just in time to leave for the center of town to meet my best guy friend, Craig. Somehow we managed to get a lift from the head of drama club, so we were happy. In the car I was so excited it was unbelievable. Throughout the last few day I have been informing everyone of what happened after I met up with ‘Joanne's' friends, they know everything she said. I reckon it's all on for tonight. Ever since all this Joanne malarkey started, I've never been able to understand why she does it. Why she doesn't just be herself. Whether she's forgotten her old friends, or just forgotten how she used to be. It just doesn't make sense. By the time we arrived, Joanne was already there. Laughing, flirting and just being who she wasn't. I was surprised that she noticed I'd arrived, oh my mistake she hadn't. The only person she had noticed was Craig, I wanted to hit her so much. When the other girls arrived we decided to spike all her drinks until she blabs, so from then on her drinks weren't all innocent and clean, they had been spiked. Only with a little alcohol though. Halfway through the night she was completely wasted. This was our opportunity to show everyone what Joanne's like, and to have our laugh. One person can only do this stunt, and that person was Daniel. Daniel is the best looking guy in our drama club and absolutely every girl at some point in her life will fancy the pants off him, and for Joanne this was the point in her life. Daniel decided to go with the casual approach, and casually asked her what she thought of drama club and everyone at the party. The bomb had been set off. Once she started she couldn't stop. She thought the girls were bitchy and annoying, and obviously not as good looking as her. The boys were mainly fit but full of themselves and have massive egos. So basically, she doesn't like anyone there. Although she surprised me when she said the only people she did like were the girls in her year, i.e. my friends and I, and of course she liked Daniel. She explained that she only hung around with the older guys because she was just a tad bit desperate!! I couldn't wait until the next day. For the next few days I have to say Joanne was hated by nearly everyone. I felt quite bad about what me and Lucy did, telling everyone Joanne was evil. In some ways though I'm happy because she's started to go back to her old self when she didn't know the drama club, now everyone gets to be friends with the real her. Not that the older people want to be, that would be just me and the girls. After a month or so the drama club started to warm up to Joanne and her normal self. Future parties will never be able to live up to the drama from that party, it was proper immense. I suppose that's what drama is all about, isn't it?!

Understanding the Ramifications of Overfishing

Simply put, overfishing is when so many fish are caught that the population cant reproduce enough to replace them. Overfishing can lead to depletion of or extinction of fish populations. The depletion of top predators, like tuna, enable smaller marine species to overpopulate affecting the rest of the food chain.  Deep sea fish are thought to be more at risk than shallow water fish due to their slow metabolism and smaller rates of reproduction. Types of Overfishing There are three types of overfishing: Ecosystem overfishing happens when a predatory species, like tuna, has a sharp decline in population enabling smaller marine species to overpopulate.Recruitment overfishing occurs when a fish is harvested before it is old enough to reproduce.Growth overfishing is when a fish is harvested before it has reached its full size.   Overfishing in the Past Some of the earliest examples of overfishing occurred  in the 1800s when the whale population was decimated in order to produce high-demand products. Whale blubber was used to create candles, lamp oil and the whalebone was used in everyday items.   In the mid-1900s there was a sardine population collapse on the West Coast due to climate factors combined with overfishing. Fortunately, sardine stocks had rebounded by the 1990s.   Preventing Overfishing As fisheries have returned smaller yields each year governments around the world are looking into what can be done to prevent overfishing. Some of the methods include expanding the use of aquaculture, more effective enforcement of laws governing catches, and improved fisheries management.   In the U.S., Congress passed The Sustainable Fisheries Act of 1996 which defines overfishing as a rate or level of fishing mortality that jeopardizes a fisherys capacity to produce maximum sustainable yield (MSY) on a continuing basis.