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Introduction
Exploring the process of cognition, Hume adhered to the central thesis of empiricists that experience is the only source of our knowledge. However, Hume offered his understanding of experience. Experience, the philosopher believes, describes only what directly belongs to consciousness (Hume). In other words, experience says nothing about relations in the external world but only refers to the mastering of perceptions in our minds because, in his opinion, the causes that give rise to perceptions are unknowable. Thus, Hume excluded the external world from experience and connected experience with perceptions (Hume). Hume distinguishes three laws of the association of ideas resemblance, contiguity in time or space, and causality.
At the same time, he noted that the laws of similarity and proximity are definite and can be fixed by feelings. While the senses do not perceive the direction of causality, it must therefore be subjected to the rigorous test of empiricism. According to the research, thought has unlimited freedom (Hume). In reality, any idea is limited by very narrow limits associated with the ability to connect, move, increase, or decrease the material delivered to us by feelings and experience. The experiment with the blue color is shown as a counterexample to the philosophers previous thoughts that human knowledge of the world is carried out solely based on sensory signals, and in his opinion, this is not the case, so a person will be able to restore the missing color.
First Secondary Source
The first secondary resource is devoted to providing the empirical research results of the practical realization of the blue color test suggested by Hume. Despite the apparent limitations of the practical experiment, the researchers gained valuable results that most four out of seventy-two participants could supply the missing color (Finch). The essential correction that is vital to highlight is that the participant had vast experience in art, which could affect the test result (Finch). When the shadowing gap was more extensive, primarily all participants were able to restore the missing color (Finch). In other words, the more complex the pattern of thought, the fewer opportunities to correct the information without the experience the brain can recollect. This experiment may serve as proof that appropriate impressions always evoke simple ideas. The researchers main aim was to state whether the man has a particular imaginary collection of such gaps and imagines a picture of this specific shade, even though his senses have never perceived it.
Second Secondary Source
The research article written by Becker critiques the ideas of Hume and his blue color example. Based on the inquiry that the opinions are complex and combined copies of simple sensory impressions, Becker states that the one hypothesized example is irrational to consider the main proof (Becker). This essay questions Humes argument for the correspondence theory to prove that truth can change among individuals if each person has a different perception of the experience. However, the article highlights the importance of the approach and emphasizes the necessity of providing more extensive argumentation (Becker). The authors main idea is that the example of the blue color is contradictory. Humes copy theory is rational, but through such a vague example, the significance of his ideas seems less argument. More than such an example is needed to build the theory. Moreover, such an explanatory approach addressed no issues related to the complexity of sensory impressions and ideas.
Argument
The Sense of Humes Ideology
The analysis of the secondary resources highlights that despite the poor argumentation, Hume provides the vital for understanding the ideas formation concepts. Finchs research highlights the perceptional gap, which correlates with the participants connection to art (Finch). Based only on this empirical data, personal experience affects the way visual data is perceived. The major thesis of this analysis is that each person visualizes different experiences, which supports Humes ideas.
Analyzing the work of Hume, critics, and his followers, philosophers predicted the phenomenon of apperception. This phenomenon includes a mental property, a conditional perception of external objects depending on a persons life experience, worldview, moral and ethical beliefs, occupation, interests, needs, expectations, and other factors (Zhao). The expansion of perception functions occurred due to the influence of memory and thinking and their inclusion in the mechanism of perception. Thanks to memory, it became possible to remember the experience gained in primitive perception and to form a response based on this experience (Cacciamani and Goldstein). Thinking made it possible to transform the accumulated information for use in a new situation.
Apperception makes it possible to recognize unknown objects on the basis of remembering the experience (positive or negative) of interaction with them. In psychology, psychological attitude term is used to describe phenomena in which the perception of a situation or objects significantly depends on previous experience of perceiving similar situations or things (Zhao). It implies that peoples experience is unique, affecting their responses to particular situations. Therefore, despite being raised in similar conditions, the combination of reactions and perceptional mechanisms will be unique for every person implying the formation of personal truths.
Hume seems right at first glance that all ideas, especially abstract ones, are naturally weak and obscure. Human minds need to firmly possess particular understandings that can easily be confused with similar ideas. The process of imagination can be primarily allocated here. The human minds contents are perceptions, divided into two large classes: Humes impressions and ideas (Cacciamani and Goldstein). The position that the image is the initial one, and the picture becomes dependent on it, sounds logical. People move quickly from one idea to another that is similar to it or from one view to another, usually related to the first in time or space.
Hume, like Berkeley, finds the concept of material substance meaningless. But as Berkeley did with the idea of material substance, Hume does with the idea of spiritual substance. If in experience, observing one phenomenon, people follow the second along with it, then we can conclude that the first phenomenon is the cause of the second. For example, we observe together fire and smoke, cold and snow, the light of the sun and heat, and conclude that a causal relationship connects them. From the position of an empiricist, people do not give importance to observed phenomena. Humes philosophy denies the human mind its claim to know the essence of anything. Humes philosophy is a philosophically motivated rejection of philosophy.
The Blue Color Perception Critique and Correspondence Theory
Regarding the blue-color experiment, it is evident that this is only the psychological theory that is difficult to apply in practice. This thought experiment can be done on any sensory stimulus that has a continuous spectrum (at least visual and auditory stimuli do). Possibly tactile as well. If a person has never seen this particular gradation of blue, then he does not have neurons tuned to it that would fire upon observation. Accordingly, even if it is possible to see a gradient of colors with the power of imagination, restoring the missing color is impossible since there is simply no configuration of neurons that could be excited to imagine this missing color.
The previously conducted analysis shows that Humes argument related to the thorough formation is reliable. In order to prove this, the correspondence theory of truth can be utilized. This approach interprets the truth of some thought as its correspondence to its subject or reality (Glanzberg). The research conducted by Finch and the literature show that there are direct correlations between Humes ideas and real-life examples. Therefore, a corresponding understanding of truth grows out of everyday experience and is collected as a result of peoples experience date. The ideas formation of Hume can also be considered the thrust. In Humes theory of knowledge, ideas are figurative representations, sensory images of memory, and products of the imagination, including distorted, fantastic products (Hume). Such an understanding results in the affection on the perception the individual perception.
Conclusion
Therefore, perception, in combination with the persons existing experience, allows the formulation of particular ideas and concepts. The associative principle, which Hume described, is rational and creates more complex ideas and correlations among thoughts, allowing the formulation of more abstract notions based on experience. Therefore, the unique experience provides the individual perception and ideas formation method. The data relating to the brain and perception functioning shows that the uniqueness of the incident and perception is truthful. Such a statement allows the conclusion that Humes argument is accurate despite the vague examples.
Works Cited
Becker, Lon. The Missing Shade of Blue as a Proof Against Proof, British Journal for the History of Philosophy. British Journal for the History of Philosophy, vol. 18, no. 1, 2009, pp. 3544.
Cacciamani, Laura and Goldstein, Bruce. Sensation and Perception. Cengage, 2022.
Finch, Jonathan. A Test: Humes Shade of Blue. The Journal of Scottish Philosophy, vol. 13, no. 3, 2015, pp. 219228.
Glanzberg, Michael. The Oxford Handbook of Truth. Oxford University Press, 2018.
Hume, David. An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding and Other Writings. Edited by Stephen Buckle, Cambridge University Press, 2007.
Zhao, Yiheng. Apperception and Appresentation: Minimum Formal Integrity of Meaning. Philosophical Semiotics, Springer, Singapore., 2022, pp. 95109.
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