metaphysics

Hume

An early but powerful statement of these criticisms is to be found in the writings of David Hume, A Treatise of Human Nature (1739–40) and An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding (1748). Hume argued first that every simple idea was derived from some simple impression and that every complex idea was made up of simple ideas; innate ideas, supposed to be native to the mind, were nonexistent. There were eccentricities in Hume’s conception of idea (and for that matter in his conception of impression), but these did not destroy the force of his argument that the senses provide the materials from which basic concepts are abstracted. A being that lacked sense experience could not have concepts in the normal sense of the term. Next, Hume proceeded to make a sharp distinction between two types of proposition, one knowable by the pure intellect, the other dependent on the occurrence of sense experiences. Propositions concerning matters of fact and existence answer the latter description; they either record what is immediately experienced through the senses or state what is taken to be the case on the basis of such immediate experiences. Such statements about matters ... (200 of 37,078 words)