David Hume and the Cygnus Atratus
Sunday, June 17th, 2007
The Scots philosopher: “No amount of observations of white swans can allow the inference that all swans are white, but the observation of a single black swan is sufficient to refute that conclusion.”
Hume is the first modern epistemologist. They who stress the need for rigor in the gathering and interpretation of knowledge.
I’ve mentioned before, the very fact that I know absolutely nothing about a subject, liberates me to make all manner of pronouncements on a topic, pretending to be an expert on such. Wide sweeping generalizations, misinterpretations, are all part of the package.
Pure empiricism without logical structure, is dangerous.