Self evident truths according to the Declaration
According to the Declaration, all people, men and women are created equal, and that the creator has given each person the unalienable rights like the right to life, right to liberty and right to happiness. Also in the Declaration truths is the institution of government. In this truth, the government is founded amongst the people and it obtains it’s fair and just powers from the assent of the governed. This is affirmed by Armitage (2007) “the governed have got the powers to abolish a government which do not hold unto the virtues of fairness and justice”. Additionally, in case of abolishment, the governed have got the authority to institute new governments which will enable them attain their quest for happiness and safety. Therefore, if the people deem necessary that the government has failed to meet their desires and has failed to exercise the powers and authority they are given, then the people have got the authority to dissolve such government and bring in a new. The new government must stretch to meet the needs of the people and must exercise power within their limits.
The major premise of declaration
The declaration to give people power to institute a government which is to govern them and assist them in attaining their rights which their creator endowed unto them. This premise holds that every person is equal, whether in power or not. It also holds that the person given the authority to govern must endeavor to meet the rights of the people at whatever cost. According to Armitage (2007), “government is instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed”. That the instituted government must do their level best in ensuring that the people’s happiness is reached since this is the ultimatum, end goal of every human. Hence in the major premise of the declaration, forming a government which is to govern the people, justice is the end result which is expected by the people. By achieving this, this premise holds that every person will be better placed to meet their unalienable rights of life, liberty and pursuit for happiness. Indeed, this premise holds unto the future of everyone who is governed, since the government has got influence on the people, and so are the governed.
The minor premise of declaration
The Declaration to give people the power to abolish or alter the government which has failed to meet their expectations. In this case the government to be altered or abolished may be justified to have failed in addressing the core issues which are expected by the people. For instance, the people expect that the government should address all their rights, thus in cases where justice do not prevail, the Declaration gives them power to abolish or alter the government and institute a new. This agreement will see people abolish that government which brings with it suffering and desperation of people’s rights and lives. Once the people notice these vices, they have the premise as stated in this Declaration to abolish or alter such government and institute a new which is able to meet all their expectations, exercising power with just and fairness. These are noted in the Declaration of Independence “that whenever any form of government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or to abolish it” (Armitage, 2007).
Relations of Ideas and Matters of Facts
Human reasoning or enquiry is of two kinds, matters of facts and relation of ideas as noted by Hume. Relations of ideas are quite extensive and it involves arithmetic, geometry and algebra. It also includes all those statements which are demonstratively and intuitively justified. Therefore, the relations of ideas are simply interconnection of thoughts with no need to compare the idea with anything existing in the earth. For instance, as noted Hume “if we think of a wound, we can hardly think of the pain that follows it”. In other words, the truths in the relations of ideas are self evident and they do not need actual existence of things to prove the certainty of the inter connection. On the other hand, matters of facts are not constituted in the same way as relations of ideas. In fact they can’t be truly thought over, but instead they are based on the possibility of contradiction of every fact. For example, the matter of fact that the sun will not set tomorrow is a false proposition which is not necessary to demonstrate. This is a fact which every philosopher cannot attempt to investigate. Since matters of facts do not need to be demonstrated, they are based on cause effect relation and they always stand true to their positions (Hume, 1993).
Causality
Hume researched and investigated foundation of human reasoning in terms of cause and effect. His findings are very appealing, since they all lean towards once experience. Thus causality according to Hume can be considered as equal to experience. However, further investigations with inferences on experience do not reveal consistency that results from causality and its effects. Therefore, one may need repeated experience to identify with surety the possibility of causality. Still the experience must be learned based on the relations of ideas and matters of facts. Thus, it is worth noting that with enough experience even the most stupid being, the infants, the beasts and the most ignorant learn by observing effects. Hence as indicated by Hume (1993), “if we want to understand the basts of our confidence about matters of fact, we must find how we come to know about cause and effect.”
What shapes and controls our moral thinking
For Hume customs are things that the society wants as to believe in. Customs are very special for humans because the society put expectations on people depending with their culture. In the struggle to meet the expectations one ends up being morally upright. Hence, customs are very important for every man since they give people weight and influence in the society where they live. On the other hand, customs makes a person to develop habits which will determine who he/she becomes. When one instills good habits he/she maybe of greater importance than one who do not have these beliefs. Furthermore, for many people customs and habits are the governing principles in their lives. With strengthened and well established customs and habits, one become principled and develops good morals. Good thinking morals definitely lead to good actions which are cultivated with experience, a statement which Hume (1993) completely agrees with. “It is custom or habit. When we are inclined to behave or think in some way”.
Drive for truth
Human intellect is very crucial for understanding of the truth. It is the intellect which unfolds all powers that are needed by any man. The intellect can unfold the important powers in dissimulation which is the only means by which the disadvantage preserves them. Indeed it is through intellect that forgetfulness can be cultured by individuals, and the truth is founded in individual’s forgetfulness. And as noted in Philosophy and Truth “it is only by means of forgetfulness that man can ever reach the point of fancying himself to possess a truth”. In other words, people must learn to forget the earlier happenstances to build in truth. For instance, once a person has lied before, he/she can’t be truthful unless he/she unlearn the lies and avoid using them for any future references. This is why, one can’t be a complete whole, but by omitting or forgetting a person’s weaknesses in one area he can be said to be strong in another area. A good example is the case of an honest person. Definitely, there is no one who is perfectly honest, but by forgetting other aspects or weakness of the person, one may consider him honest. Thus the foundation of truth is based on one’s forgetfulness (Lampart, 1996).
Language for Nietzsche
Language is arguably the most important tool in the construction of concepts, and Nietzsche just like other philosopher has used it in his concepts. Nietzsche has identified metaphors as the best language of communicating concepts. He has noted that the world of dream can’t come unless the walking man is refashioned and awakened. In his language, Nietzsche has founded that man love being deceived for him to initiate actions and take controls. For instance, Lampart (1996) founded that “a uniformly valid and binding designation is invented for things, and this kind of legislation establishes the first law of truth”. In his metaphorical argument, he has found that man persistently looks for happiness but ends up with lots of misfortune due to misleading concepts and abstractions. Hence, in Nietzsche language, man always fails and stumbles because he doesn’t learn from experience. Thus, he warns human to stop looking for truth, sincerity and freedom from deception, because this is a person who will spend his/her entire life in endless search for what he/she can’t find. At the end, this person ends up deceived by hiding in his/her misfortunes.
What is Truth?
According to Lampart (1996), Nietzsche sees truth as an illusion which is opposed by the human knowledge. He acknowledges the demand for truth by human, but believes that truth can’t be used solely for the maintenance of the human species. He further asserts that “truth is a movable host of metaphors, metonymies, and anthropomorphism, sum of human relations which have been poetically and rhetorically intensified”. Instead, truth should be utilized concurrently with lies if one is to develop presuppositions with the knowledge. Furthermore, Nietzsche believes that truth cannot be recognized and it is a cloak which leads to different impulses and motivations
Reason to Be Afraid
Yes, there are reasons to be afraid, because the philosophers deny the existence of truth. In their researches and philosophies they believe that through lying one develops and gains the ultimate truth of pleasure, whereas truths are merely illusions which are founded on lies. Indeed Lampart (1996) has found that “the first thing which the forbidden truths destroy is the individual who utters them”.
Why Causality is Not Rational
Hume finds causality as one of the difficult fields to fathom. He first identifies and explains causality as an area which can be referred to as experience. He raises a number of questions on the possible causes and effects in a number of fields and all his findings address causality based on experience. Without doubt Hume (1993) believes that “the preposition that causes and effects are discoverable not by reason but by experience will be freely granted”.
However, a further look at the experience does not justify experience as equal to causality. When the Philosopher tries to understand experience through a deeper lens he fails to find direct relations between causality and experience. Indeed he acknowledges that one can be experienced in one field and still fails to explain the effects resulting from the passive causes within the field. Nonetheless, he continues his search for greater inferences between truth and causality, and it’s this increased search of understanding that misleads him even more. Here he finds that causality is directly inferred to experience since with experience even the most stupid of stupid gets to understand, the beasts learn and the infants get to know. These statements are echoed by Hume (1993), “just as the first imagining or inventing of a particular effect is arbitrary if it isn’t based on experience, the same holds for the supposed tie or connection between cause and effect-the tie that binds them together and makes it impossible for that cause to have any effect but that one”.
References
Armitage, D. (2007). The declaration of independence: a global history. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press
Lampert, L. (1996). Leo Strauss and Nietzsche. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Hume, D. (1993). Enquiry concerning human understanding. Harvard Classic Vol 37.
