Jan 26, 2012
What Really Happened at the Beginning of Time?
By David Brown | Posted at 16:5:55
What Really Happened at the Beginning of Time? by David Berlinski (Ricochet 1-25-12)
In a very bravura passage, David Hume writes that “if we take in our hand any volume of divinity or school metaphysics let us ask this question, does it contain any abstract reasoning concerning quantity or number? No. Does it contain any experimental reasoning concerning matter of fact or existence? No. Commit it then to the flames, for it can be nothing but sophistry and illusion.”
What of Hume's own remarks? Not so good. Hume was an early victim of the Vise, the circumstance that attends a philosopher who finds himself squeezed between the premises and conclusion of an argument by which he attempted to squeeze others.