Hume

Hume would find Descartes attempts to rationalize the world futile and pretentious. How can a person attempt to know more than what they themselves have experienced? Socrates himself said: "All I know is that I know nothing." Although Descartes claims that he can use his reason to realize that a puddle of wax is still wax, or that a mirage in the distance is just sensory deception, Hume does not think that is enough. Why is it wax in the first place? Can you ever really be certain that it is not something else?

This is why Hume champions empiricism. We interpret the world through our experiences and our reactions, not through the "facts" that scientists and mathematicians simply assume to be true.