Stephen Downes

Knowledge, Learning, Community

Hume the humane

Julian Baggini, Aeon, Nov 30, 2019

The illustration for my recent presentation was taken from this article, which summarizes the work of philosopher David Hume. As the author writes, "Hume believed we were nothing more or less than human: that's why he's the amiable, modest, generous philosopher we need now." I am inclined to agree with this assessment, and my own work has been greatly influenced by Hume. This, in particular, is key: "Most of our 'reasoning' is little more than an almost-instinctive 'association of ideas'. Learning from experience is 'a species of Analogy' in which we expect similar things to have similar effects."

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Stephen Downes Stephen Downes, Casselman, Canada
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