Hume's scepticism
pp. 63-70
in: Graham Solomon (ed), Witches, scientists, philosophers, Berlin, Springer, 2000Abstract
There are today two rather widely accepted but divergent ways of viewing Hume's philosophy. The first sees Hume as having advanced a radical scepticism which devastated the very possibility of scientific knowledge. The other regards Hume as having introduced a healthy scepticism prompting philosophers and scientists to abandon the rash claims of modern rationalists and to embrace humbly the fact that non-trivial knowledge is after all only probable. The first of these views of Hume stems from Kant. The second appears to prevail amongst various kinds of contemporary philosophers, and stems from logical positivism or later logical empiricism.
