Hume and the Problem of Induction Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Hume and the Problem of Induction - Essay Example It is possible that a piece of food will poison the individual even though it has never poisoned him or her in the past. Therefore, the individual has weaken his or her conclusion by claiming that probably the piece of food is not going to poison him or her. The statement is true concerning the statement of psychological conviction. The question that rings is, Is It rationally justifiable in any sense of objective? Therefore, it can be said that any form of inductive argument and reasoning is only reliable when the outcome or the conclusion from the statement is almost true most of the time. According to Hume, if at all there were any of such arguments it will be simple enumerative induction. Hume himself does not use the concept of induction. In any case, whatever has come to be called the problem of induction has come down to everyone. Hume problem of induction is into two different parts. The first part is the descriptive problem. In this part, it explains how human’s beings are able to form opinions out of fact matters that are unobserved. The second part is the normative section. The second part tries to answer the question of whether the beliefs that are in such ways are justified. Hume’s tries to answer questions of life on whether individuals who reason out just the same way people do, have the reason to believe on his or her conclusions, on the parts of nature he or she knows nothing about and has not observed (Sloman and Lagnado, pg. 95). The first claim of Hume is negative: a priori cannot be from any knowledge that is not observed. Rather the priori must be derived from the knowledge that has been gained through observation and experience. Imagine an individual who has never heard about snow leave alone seeing it. For the first, he or she is shown a snowball and asked to make a prediction even before he or she has touched it, whether it will be hot or cold.