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David Hume Research Paper

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David Hume argues that the concept of space can be explained only with relative to human sense of sight and touch. He says that these sensations are part of the impressions we draw from the overall perceptions we have in our minds. Since these impressions are formed from what we sense, space cannot be determined or defined independently of these sensations. He also states that space is really an interpretation of what we sense so it is not a primary quality that is unaided by any personal perceptions or precisely impressions. The notion of time is a secondary quality, which essentially means that time, can only be explained in terms of something else (primary quality) and cannot be expressed independent of all external cases and possibilities. This paper aims to analyze why David Hume explains time and space as a dependent notion and claims them to be secondary in being. Towards the second half of the paper, it aims to discuss how Kant would respond to Hume’s given definition of space …show more content…

If it was real then it needed no other object to define it. For Kant, real things can be defined and understood for their being while non-real things need a real object for supporting its existence and description. Kant professes that space and time are not objective. Kant in his Prolegomena, explains that space and time are intuitions of our sensibility and this can be observed in one of his quotes, “objects are not representations of the things as they are in themselves, but are sensible intuitions, i.e. appearances, which come about through the relation to our sensibility of certain things that are unknown in themselves. When this sensibility is exercised as outer intuition, its form is space” (Kant, 20). This quotes brings the ground where Kant and Hume differ with respect to their definitions of

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