xperience are not founded on reasoning or any process of the understanding" (Hume 21). To illustrate Hume's point, let's look at an experiment which exaggerates the logic of necessary connection. If an experiment calls for a person to toss a coin in the air fifty times and it comes up tails all fifty times, then using the logic of necessary connection a person could conclude with certainty that tossing a coin into the air causes the coin to come up tails. Sound ridiculous? What Hume argues is that the logic of necessary connection results in human beings making these kinds of inferences everyday. Just because we observe something happen all our lives does not mean that we know with certainty that it is caused by something else.Mathematics, as stated earlier, was the one exception to Hume's opinion on necessary connection. If one observes a three sided figure once, then every time from then on that a person views a three sided figure chances are they will associate that figure with a triangle. Hume felt that math was the one case where a person could be justified in doing such a thing. On the other hand, mathematics also has many qualities that can be attributed to a Deweyan way of thinking. The whole idea of assigning word problems to students seems very Deweyan. I unfortunately did not have too many word problems in my math class at Michigan, and this probably would have concerned Dewey a great deal. No, my class dealt much more with mathematics in the abstract sense. Very rarely did we apply what we learned in an everyday example. There were many class periods where I sat and wondered how this would ever be useful to me in 'real life'. Memorizing was a big part of the class. On the exams I had to be able to look at a question and know what memorized formula to use in order to do well on the exams. This would not have pleased Dewey at all.In a Deweyan mathematics class several questions dealing with everyday problems wo...
