A CRITICAL EVALUATION OF DAVID HUME’S CRITIQUE OF METAPHYSICS.

ABSTRACT

Since the Age of Enlightenment, metaphysics as a source of true knowledge has been questioned and attacked numerously. This became more severe as philosophy moved closer to having a scientific face as evidenced by the theories of the Analytic Tradition and scientific philosophers. Prior to these scholars, DavidHume in his book, Enquiries Concerning the Human Understanding, advised us to commit metaphysics to the flames because it lacks empirical facts and observation. Hume’s claim challenged the position of metaphysics (a branch some consider to be the nucleus of philosophy) as a true source of knowledge. This works posits that metaphysics can be a source of true knowledge especially for Africans and thus serves as a critique to David Hume’s utter dismissal of the validity of the knowledge derived from metaphysics. A combination of analytic and critical methods was employed to challenge the anti-metaphysics claim by Hume. It was discovered in this work that Hume’s critique was an extreme reaction and totally negates the realities of other peoples, such as Africans, and the fact that no philosophy is universal and no source of knowledge is incorrigible. This work recommends that philosophers should desist from propounding universal philosophies in a diverse world such as ours, and that Africans need to be taught African philosophy in order not to be seduced by the arguments of thinkers like Hume.