Project Gutenberg #4705
A Treatise of Human Nature
David Hume
1739Hume's major work on knowledge, mind, and morality, prepared section by section from Project Gutenberg HTML.
Project Gutenberg #4705 Public domain in the United States Cover source Local typographic cover created for MojiMori from public-domain source metadata
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AI Summary
Chapter 5 — SECT. I. OF THE ORIGIN OF OUR IDEAS. Central question Do ideas come from somewhere other than impressions? Main argument Hume argues that every simple idea is copied from a prior impression. He allows...
principle I establish in the science of human nature; nor ought we to despise it because of the simplicity of its appearance. For it is remarkable, that the present question concerning the precedency of our impressions or ideas, is the same with what has made so much noise in other terms, when it has been disputed whether there be any INNATE IDEAS, or whether all ideas be derived from sensation and reflexion. We may observe, that in order to prove the ideas of extension and colour not to be innate, philosophers do nothing but shew that they are conveyed by our senses. To prove the ideas of passion and desire not to be innate, they observe that we have a preceding experience of these emotions in ourselves. Now if we carefully examine these arguments, we shall find that they prove nothing but that ideas are preceded by other more lively perceptions, from which the are derived, and which they represent. I hope this clear stating of the question will remove all disputes concerning it, and win render this principle of more use in our reasonings, than it seems hitherto to have been.