David Hume

Posted for Elsbeth Embretson (#8)

In my midterm report about Alice in Wonderland and Philosophy, I was first
introduced to David Hume. My part of the report was the “Six Impossible Things
Before Breakfast”.  There are, however, many other things that we improperly judge
to be impossible for no other reason than that they don’t conform to our established
ideas about how the world normally goes, things that fall into the category that the
philosopher David Hume (1711-1776) labeled matters of fact. Matters of fact
constitute one of two categories into which Hume sorted the things about which
people make enquiries and exercise their reason.” In this section, David Hume had
two categories one of which focused on the matters of fact. This quote above creates
some confliction for me. It seems as if what is a matter of fact can vary from person
to person due to our personal perception of normal. Things can be seen as matter of
fact to someone, but to others they seem unreal because the things go against
someone’s view of normal. I do not believe normal has one definition and is a word
that is up for interpretation, which is one thing I think David  Hume was trying to
communicate with people. The biggest question was Alice in Wonderland dreaming,
on drugs, or did it just happen in real life and we cannot grasp it happening because
it goes against our belief of what is normal.

Posted for Elsbeth Embretson (#8)