ThinkBlog

Fascinating question. Hume is kind of comical about this, like a schoolboy. He makes this grand statement, The mind, even when it tries to assemble the newst and most creative and absurd thing it can think of, is only assembling bits of data garnered from sense experience! Throw anything at me, and I can trace it back to some sensate beginning! Well, first of all, this is a totally unprovable statement. How on earth could you actually prove such a thing? I mean, basically he is saying that there cannot be even one thing in the mind, no matter how small, that does not result directly from sensate encounter. Hume should go back and read the Phaedo. Or he should spend some time thinking about agape. Or he should simply ask, “How is it possible that I am self reflective?”

Anyway, after demonizing Hume (though you have to admire his pluck) I will have to agree with him. The reason being that creation is ex nihilo, and therefore the only ground of ex nihilo something is the triune God. Our creativity is an extension of our imago dei. If you are really interested in this question, you should Google for the Inklings understanding of creativity and co-creation (and then you should remind me what they said.) Well, this has all been off the top of my head, so I hope I don’t eat it later, but there it is.

Fascinating question. Hume is kind of comical about this, like a schoolboy. He makes this grand statement, The mind, even when it tries to assemble the newst and most creative and absurd thing it can think of, is only assembling bits of data garnered from sense experience! Throw anything at me, and I can trace it back to some sensate beginning! Well, first of all, this is a totally unprovable statement. How on earth could you actually prove such a thing? I mean, basically he is saying that there cannot be even one thing in the mind, no matter how small, that does not result directly from sensate encounter. Hume should go back and read the Phaedo. Or he should spend some time thinking about agape. Or he should simply ask, “How is it possible that I am self reflective?”

Anyway, after demonizing Hume (though you have to admire his pluck) I will have to agree with him. The reason being that creation is ex nihilo, and therefore the only ground of ex nihilo something is the triune God. Our creativity is an extension of our imago dei. If you are really interested in this question, you should Google for the Inklings understanding of creativity and co-creation (and then you should remind me what they said.) Well, this has all been off the top of my head, so I hope I don’t eat it later, but there it is.