The Blog

David Hume is responsible for the skepticism prevalent today.

As an empiricist, Hume believed that all meaningful ideas were either true by definition or must be based by sense-experience.

According to Hume, there is no sense-experiences for concepts beyond the physical claims. Anything supernatural (such as God) should not be believed – because they are meaningless.

In fact, Hume asserted that propositions can be meaningful only if they meet the two following criteria:

1. The truth claim is abstract reasoning such as “2+2=4” or a definition “a triangle has three sides”.
2. The truth claim can be verified empirically which means through your five senses.

While Hume claimed to be a skeptic, he was not at all skeptical about these two conditions.

This is an ideal situation to use the Road Runner tactic.

Hume’s principle of empirical verifiability states that there are only two conditions to truth:

1. those that are true by definition and
2. those who are empirically verifiable.

With use of Road Runner tactic, we can dismiss this principle in a heartbeat. Since the principle of empirical verifiability itself is neither true by definition nor empirically verifiable, it cannot be meaningful.

This principle could not be meaningful based on its own standard. It self-destructed in midair.

In other words, Hume tried to prove too much because his method of discovering meaningful propositions excludes too much.

Certainly, claims that are empirically verifiable or true by definition are meaningful. However, such claims do not comprise all meaningful statements as Hume intended.

Personal Reflection:

Were you ever skeptical about God? Have your beliefs changed?