Human Nature Theory, Up and Down

Author: David Hume
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2004-07-01
Features: Excerpt: Section IV on the Connection or Union of Ideas
All simple ideas can be separated by imagination and freely combined into any form. If this faculty were not governed by certain universal principles that ensure consistency to some degree across all times and places, its various functions would be unexplainable. If ideas were completely disconnected and unrelated, their connection would depend solely on chance. Without some guiding (thread) or connecting quality that naturally causes one idea to evoke another, simple ideas would not systematically combine into complex ones (which is, in fact, usually the case). This principle of connection between ideas should not be regarded as an inseparable bond, as such a connection has been excluded from the realm of imagination. At the same time, we should not assert that the mind cannot combine two ideas without this connection, for nothing is as free as this faculty. We can only consider this connection as a mild force that frequently prevails—it is also the reason why languages correspond so closely to one another (in addition to connecting other things). Nature seems to indicate to everyone which simple ideas are suitable for combining into a complex one. There are three properties that produce this connection and enable the mind to move between ideas in this way: resemblance, spatial and temporal proximity, and causality.
This book is a significant philosophical work by the 18th-century British idealist philosopher and skeptic, David Hume. He believed that all sciences are related to human nature and that the study of human nature should be the foundation of all sciences. The book attempts to reveal the principles governing human intellect, emotions, and moral behavior through the study of human nature. It is divided into three volumes: the first discusses intellect, the second discusses emotions, and the third discusses morality.