Hume, Austen, and First Impressions

Rodney Delasanta discusses David Hume’s and Immanuel Kant’s studies of philosophy in his article, “Hume, Austen, and First Impressions.” Hume and Kant have destroyed philosophy, and human understanding in believing the truth. They both declare that man knows nothing about the truth; and they each explain human understanding. The world is in chaos because man has lost the light of reason; and eventually man will lose the light of faith. Not only do Hume’s and Kant’s theories contradict themselves, they also have no common sense attached. They are only focused on becoming good poets instead of understanding the true reason of philosophy.

David Hume spent most of his years as a secretary in the British embassy during the reign of Louis XV. Hume was considered a great philosopher during his time, or at least in some people’s opinions, like Immanuel Kant’s. Hume did not believe in the light of reason, meaning there is no truth in the world that we live in. This means that man is lost. Hume destroyed the world by believing in sensation only, and by comparing us to animals. He argued that man does not possess intellect and understanding. In Hume’s explanation of sensation, he revealed that the world is an illusion, meaning everything around you is just your imagination: If a tree falls and you are not around it, the tree will make no sound; the sound will only be there if someone is there to hear it. According to Hume, your brain tricks you into hearing a noise, but it is not really there, it was just an illusion.

Another philosopher who agreed with David Hume and caused even more damage to the progress of the future was Immanuel Kant. He agreed with Hume, but he said he went too far. Kant believed in the imaginary world, but he did not believe that it was just based on sensation. Kant believed nothing in this world is true: sometime during your life an elderly person taught you everything you know about the world; he told you what an egg is and you drew the image of the egg in your head so every time you see the egg you know what it is. Kant asked, but how do you know it is an egg? It is an illusion that your mind portrays, you can see the egg, cook it and eat it, but you still do not know if it really is an egg. Therefore man does not know anything. It is just a trick your intellect is playing on you. It’s creating the image in your head, which is not true. Of course that means that every man has a different view and different picture of the world. How do you know if what you are seeing is an egg? Kant left the world puzzled.

The more I read about sophists, the more this world depresses me. The more I realize that the economy I live in was the creation of those sophists, the more I hate this world. How can people be so ignorant, so absent-minded? I don’t understand how man can believe such nonsense; man is born with common sense, he should be able to comprehend that Hume’s and Kant’s arguments make no sense. Because of the sophists, we live in a world filled with lies, pain, and hatred towards one another. Since we have no truth, we cannot comprehend that we are all the same. Immanuel Kant left the world puzzled and of course more of his type will come to finish the task of destroying the truth that is left in the world.