Phil 212

Final Paper

Maximum: 6 pages (double-spaced, one inch margin, font 12 Times New Roman)

Deadline: May 17. Wednesday

Academic honesty policy: Your paper must be original work done by YOU, written specifically for this assignment, using the book A Treatise of Human Nature by David Hume and nothing else. Failure to use course text and use proper citations means an F for the assignment. (Don’t need to use outside sources AT ALL. I just need your OWN point of view on the question below. Please don’t use any other book or article.)

1.     Objects

We saw three different views regarding the existence of external objects: (1) the “vulgar” native realism, (2) the Lockean, representational theory, and (3) Hume’s theory. Suppose that you are eating a sweet, juicy peach while writing this paper on your computer. Explain how exactly each of the three views explains the external existence of this peach and your computer. Which one do you find the most plausible as a philosophical/theoretical explanation of the external, independent existence of them? Why?  What is wrong with the other two?

Make sure you use Locke’s Essay concerning Human Understanding as a textual evidence for your explanation of (2) and Hume’s Treatise of Human Nature for (3)

**DO NOT use block quotes or long quotes. Use direct quotes, sparingly, only as textual support for your explications/interpretations of the philosophers’ views. Never use them to replace your own words.

***DO NOT use any outside sources!!!!

****Assume that I, the reader, do not know anything about what you are talking about.