Research Paper on:
Hume/Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding/Section 9

Unformatted Sample Text from the Research Paper:
and reason. In this section, Hume proposes that human beings reason by analogy and also suggests that his theories concerning human reason would be substantiated if he could find evidence  in the animal kingdom of a similar process in animal understanding. Hume then proceeds to argue that similarities do exist between human and animal understanding, which indicates human rationality is  something that arises naturally, as an aid to survival in the world. Essentially, he argues that human reasoning differs from this ability in animals only in degree, which means human  begins are better at reasoning, but it does make this faculty unique in humanity. Hume points out that animals, like humans, learn from their experiences and draw inferences from  causal connections between events. He writes, "First, It seems evident that animals as well as men learn many things from experience, and infer, that the same events will always follow  from the same causes" (Hume). His example of an old greyhound dog on the hunt is quite apt. "An old greyhound will trust the more fatiguing part of the chase  to the younger, and will place himself so as to meet the hare in her doubles; nor are the conjectures, which he forms on this occasion, founded on anything but  his own observation and experience" (Hume). In other words, an old dog, due to his experience, knows the rabbit will double back. Therefore, he allows the young dogs to tire  the quarry in the chase and uses strategy based on prior experience. No one has to teach this to an old dog; the dog acquires the knowledge and how to  use it through experience. Because of this, Hume feels that reasoning, that is, seeing cause and effect relationships is not unique to human beings. Secondly, Hume argues that animals