David Hume : An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding
From: Biographical note on David Hume, pg. 447
…three years later he had acquired a fair knowledge of Latin, slight acquaintance with Greek, and a literary taste inclining to “book of reasoning and philosophy, and to poetry and the polite authors.” His studious disposition led his family to believe that law was the proper profession for him, but he “found an insurmountable aversion to everything but the pursuits of philosophy and general learning; and they [his parents] fancied I was poring upon Voet and Vinius, Cicero and Virgil were the authors which I was secretly devouring.”
From: Biographical note on David Hume, pg. 447
…accepted the office of secretary to General St. Clair… engaged in an “expedition…” …he accompanied the general on a military embassy to the courts of Vienna and Turn on which he wore the uniform of an officer…introduced…as aid-de-camp to the general. He remarks that these two years almost the only interruption which my studies have received during the course of my life…
From: Biographical note on David Hume, pg. 447
That same year he was again unsuccessful in his attempt to obtain a professor’s chair at Edinburgh, this time as the successor to his friend, Adam Smith, in the chair of logic.
From: Biographical note on David Hume, pg. 447
Most of his efforts, however, were devoted to the writing of history, to which he may have turned his attention because of the success of his political and economic essays. Adam Smith had recommended that he begin with Henry VII, but he chose to start with the period of James I “an epoch “when, I thought, the misrepresentation of faction began chiefly to take place.”
From: Biographical note on David Hume, pg. 447
Although, not only independent, but opulent…and determined never more to set foot out of his native country, Hume in 1763 accepted an invitation to go to Paris as acting secretary of the embassy. For three years he enjoyed Parisian society. Meeting with men and women of all ranks and stations, he noted “the more I resiled from their excessive civilities, the more I was loaded with them.” He returned home, convinced “there is a real satisfaction in living at Paris.”
From: Biographical note on David Hume, pg. 447
Describing self: I was, I say, a man of mild dispositions, of command of temper, and of an open, social, and cheerful humour, capable of attachment, but little susceptible of enmity; and of great moderation in all my passions. Even my love of literary fame, my ruling passion, never soured my temper, not withstanding my frequent disappointments.”
From Advertisement of Hume’s An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding, pg. 450
But not finding it successful, he was sensible of his error in going to the press too early, and he cast the whole anew in the following pieces, where some negligences in his former reasoning an more in the expression, are, he hopes, corrected.
Hume wrote:
…the most durable, as well as justest fame, has been acquired by the easy philosophy, and that abstract reasoners seem hitherto to have enjoyed only a momentary reputation, from the caprice or ignorance of their own age, but have not been able to support their renown with more equitable posterity.
David Hume : An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding, Sect 1 Of the Different Species of Philosophy, #4, pg. 451
Hume wrote:
The mere philosopher…contribute nothing either to the advantage or pleasure of society; while he lives remote from communication with mankind and is wrapped up in principles and notions equally remote from their comprehension. …the mere ignorant is still more despised…entirely destitute of all relish for those noble entertainments. The perfect character is supposed to lie between those extremes; retaining an equal ability and taste for books, company, and business; preserving in conversation that discernment and delicacy which arise from polite letters; and in business, that probity and accuracy which are the natural result of a just philosophy.
David Hume : An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding, Sect 1 Of the Different Species of Philosophy, #4, pg. 452
Hume wrote:
But the mind requires some relaxation, and cannot always support its bent to care and industry. It seems, then that nature has pointed out a mixed kind of life as most suitable to the human race, and secretly admonished them to allow none of these biases to draw too much, so as to incapacitate them for other occupations and entertainments. Indulge your passion for science, says she, but let your science be human, and such as may have a direct reference to action and society. Abstruse thought and profound researches I prohibit, and will severely punish, but the pensive melancholy which they introduce, but the endless uncertainly win which they involve you, and by the cold reception which your pretended discoveries shall meet with, when communicated.
David Hume : An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding, Sect 1 Of the Different Species of Philosophy, #4, pg. 452
Hume wrote:
All polite letters are nothing but pictures of human life in various attitudes and situations; and inspire us with different sentiments, or praise, or blame, admiration or ridicule, according to the qualities of the object , which they set before us.
David Hume : An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding, Sect 1 Of the Different Species of Philosophy, #5, pg. 452
Hume wrote:
Accuracy is, in every case, advantageous to beauty, and just reasoning to delicate sentiment. In vain would we exalt the one by depreciating the other.
David Hume : An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding, Sect 1 Of the Different Species of Philosophy, #5, pg. 453
Hume wrote:
The sweetest and most inoffensive path of life leads through the avenues of science and learning; and whoever can either remove any obstructions in this way, or open up a new prospect, out so far to be esteemed a benefactor to mankind.
David Hume : An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding, Sect 1 Of the Different Species of Philosophy, #6, pg. 453
Hume wrote:
Chased from the open country, these robbers fly into the forest, and lie in wait to break in upon every unguarded avenue of the mind, and overwhelm it with religious fears and prejudices. The stoutest antagonist, if he remit his watch a moment, is oppressed. And many, through cowardice and folly, open the gates to the enemies, and willingly receive them with reverence and submission, as their legal sovereigns.
David Hume : An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding, Sect 1 Of the Different Species of Philosophy, #6, pg. 453
Hume wrote:
But is this a sufficient reason, why philosophers should desist from such researches, and leave superstition still in possession of her retreat? Is it not proper to draw an opposite conclusion, and perceive the necessity of carrying the war into the most secret recesses of the enemy? In vain do we hope, that name, from frequent disappointment, will at last abandon such airy sciences, and discover the proper province of human reason.
David Hume : An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding, Sect 1 Of the Different Species of Philosophy, #7, pg. 453
Hume wrote:
…the motive of blind despair can never reasonably have place in the sciences, since, however unsuccessful former attempts may have proved, there is still room to hope, that the industry, good fortune, or improved sagacity of succeeding generations may reach discoveries unknown to former ages. Each adventurous genius will still leap at the arduous prize, and find himself stimulated, rather than discouraged, by the failures of his predecessors; while he hopes that the glory of achieving so hard an adventure is reserved for him alone.
David Hume : An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding, Sect 1 Of the Different Species of Philosophy, #4, pg. 451
Hume wrote:
Accurate and just reasoning is the only catholic remedy, fitted for all persons and all dispositions; and is alone able to subvert that abstruse philosophy and metaphysical jargon, which being mixed up with popular superstition, renders it in a manner impenetrable to careless reasoners, and gives it the air of science and wisdom.
David Hume : An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding, Sect 1 Of the Different Species of Philosophy, #7, pg. 454
Hume wrote:
Everyone will readily allow, that there is a considerable difference between the perception of the mind, when a man feels the pain of excessive heat, or the pleasure of moderate warmth, and when he afterwards recalls to his memory this sensation, or anticipates it by his imagination. These faculties may mimic or copy the perceptions of the senses; but they never can entirely reach the force and vivacity of the original sentiment. … we could almost say we feel or see it; but except the mind be disordered by disease or madness they never can arrive at such a pitch of vivacity...
David Hume : An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding, Sect 2 Of the Origin of Ideas, #11, pg. 455
Hume wrote:
When we reflect on our past sentiments and affections, our thought is a faithful mirror, and copies its objects truly; but the colours which it employs are faint and dull, in comparison of those in which or original perceptions were clothed.
David Hume : An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding, Sect 1 Of the Different Species of Philosophy, #11, pg. 455
Hume wrote:
A man of mild manner can form no idea of inveterate revenge or cruelty; nor can a selfish heart easily conceive the heights of friendship and generosity. It is readily allowed, that other beings may possess many sense of which we can have no conception; because the ideas of them have never been introduced to us in the only manner by which an idea can have access to the mind, to wit, by the actual feeling and sensation.
David Hume : An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding, Sect 1 Of the Different Species of Philosophy, #15, pg. 456
Hume wrote:
Thus it is a law of motion, discovered by experience, that the moment or force of any body in motion is in the compound ratio or proportion of its solid contents and its velocity; and consequently, that a small force may remove the greatest obstacle or raise the greatest weight, if by any contrivance or machinery, we can increase the velocity of that force, so as to make it an overmatch for its antagonist. Geometry assists us in the application of this law, by giving us the just dimensions of al the parts and figures which can enter into any species of machine; but still the discovery of the law itself is owing merely to experience, and all the abstract reasonings in the world could never lead us to one step towards the knowledge of it.
David Hume : An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding, Sect 4, Sceptical Doubts concerning the Operations of the Understanding, Part 1, #27, pg. 460
Hume wrote:
A man must be very sagacious who could discover by reasoning that crystal is the effect of heat, and ice of cold, without being previously acquainted with the operation of these qualities.
David Hume : An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding, Sect 4, Sceptical Doubts concerning the Operations of the Understanding, Part 1, #27, pg. 460
Hume wrote:
What is the foundation of all our reasonings and conclusions concerning that relation? It may be replied in one word, Experience.
David Hume : An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding, Sect 4, Sceptical Doubts concerning the Operations of the Understanding, Part 2, #28, pg. 460
Hume wrote:
… nature has kept us at a great distance from all her secrets and has afforded us only the knowledge of a few superficial qualities of objects; while she conceals from us those powers and principles on which the influence of those objects entirely depends.
David Hume : An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding, Sect 4, Sceptical Doubts concerning the Operations of the Understanding, Part 2, #29, pg. 461
Hume wrote:
… a man is guilty of unpardonable arrogance who concludes, because an argument has excaped his own investigation, that therefore it does not really exist.
David Hume : An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding, Sect 4, Sceptical Doubts concerning the Operations of the Understanding, Part 2, #32, pg. 463
Hume wrote:
It is certain that the most ignorant and stupid peasants – nay infants, nay even brute beasts – improve by experience, and learn the qualities of natural objects, by observing the effects which result from them.
David Hume : An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding, Sect 4, Sceptical Doubts concerning the Operations of the Understanding, Part 2, #33, pg. 463
Hume wrote:
Nothing is more free than the imagination of man; and though it cannot exceed that original stock of ideas furnished by the internal and external senses, it has unlimited power of mixing compounding, separating, and dividing these ideas, in all the varieties of fiction and vision. … For as the mind has authority over all its ideas, it could voluntarily annex this particular idea to any fiction, and consequently be able to believe whatever it pleases; contrary to what we find by daily experience.
David Hume : An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding, Sect 5, Sceptical Solution of these Doubts, Part 2, #39, pg. 466
Hume wrote:
It follows, therefore, that the difference between fiction and belief lies in some sentiment or feeling, which is annexed to the latter, not tot he former, and which depends not on the will, nor can be commanded at pleasure. It must be excited by nature, like all other sentiments; and must arise from the particular situation, in which the mind is placed at any particular juncture.
David Hume : An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding, Sect 5, Sceptical Solution of these Doubts, Part 2, #39, pg. 466
Hume wrote:
…upon the appearance of the picture of an absent friend, our idea of him is evidently enlivened by the resemblance, and that every passion, which that idea occasions, whether of joy or sorrow, acquires new force and vigour. In producing this effect, there concur both a relation and a present impression.
David Hume : An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding, Sect 5, Sceptical Solution of these Doubts, Part 2, #41, pg. 468
Hume wrote:
…we believe our friend to have once existed. Continguity to home can never excite our ideas of home, unless we believe that it really existed.
David Hume : An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding, Sect 5, Sceptical Solution of these Doubts, Part 2, #44, pg. 469
Hume wrote:
Though there be no such thing as chance in the world; our ignorance of the real cause of any event has the same influence on the understanding, and begets a like species of belief or opinion.
David Hume : An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding, Sect 6, Of Probability, #46, pg. 469
Hume wrote:
The great advantage of the mathematical sciences above the moral consists in this, that the ideas of the former, being sensible, are always clear and determinate, the smallest distinction between then is immediately perceptible, and the same terms are still expressive of the same ideas , without ambiguity or variation. An oval is never mistaken for a circle, nor an hyperbola for an ellipsis. The isosceles and scalenum are distinguished by boundaries more exact than vice and virtue, right and wrong.
David Hume : An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding, Sect 7, Of the Idea of necessary Connexion, Part 1, #48, pg. 470
Hume wrote:
There are no ideas, which occur in metaphysics, more obscure and uncertain, than those of power, force, energy, or necessary connexion, of which it is every moment necessary for us to treat in all our disquisitions. …all our ideas are copies of our impressions, or in other words, that it is impossible for us to think of anything, which we have not antecedently felt, either by our external or internal senses.
David Hume : An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding, Sect 7, Of the Idea of necessary Connexion, Part 1, #49, pg. 471
Hume wrote:
We are more master of our thoughts in the morning than in the evening: Fasting, than after a full meal.
David Hume : An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding, Sect 7, Of the Idea of necessary Connexion, Part 1, #53, pg. 474
Hume wrote:
Not content with the principle, that nothing exists buy by his will, that nothing possesses any power but by his concession: They rob nature, and all created beings, of every power, in order to render their dependence on the Deity still more sensible and immediate. They consider not that, by this theory, they diminish, instead of magnifying, the grandeur of those attributes, which they affect so much to celebrate. It argues surely more power in the Deity to delegate a certain degree of power to inferior creatures than to produce very thing by his own immediate volition. It argues more wisdom to contrive at first the fabric of the world with such perfect foresight that, of itself, and by its proper operation, it may serve all the purposes of providence, than if the great Creator were obligated every moment to adjust its parts, and animate by his breath all the wheels of that stupendous machine.
David Hume : An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding, Sect 7, Of the Idea of necessary Connexion, Part 1, #56, pg. 475
Hume wrote:
…this theory of the universal energy and operation of the Supreme Being is too bold ever to carry conviction with it to a man, sufficiently apprized of the weakness of human reason, and narrow limits to which it is confined in all its operation.
David Hume : An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding, Sect 7, Of the Idea of necessary Connexion, Part 1, #57, pg. 475
Hume wrote:
… if men attempt the discussion of question which lie entirely beyond the reach of human capacity, such as those concerning the origin of worlds, or the economy of the intellectual system or region of spirits, they may long beat the air in their fruitless contests, and never arrive at any determinate conclusion.
David Hume : An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding, Sect 8, Of Liberty and Necessity, Part 1, #56, pg. 478
Hume wrote:
It is universally acknowledged that there is a great uniformity among the actions of men, in all nations and ages, and that human nature remains still the same, in its principles and operations. The same motives always produce the same actions: The same events follow from the same causes. Ambition, avarice, self-love, vanity, friendship, generosity, public spirit: these passions, mixed in various degrees, and distributed through society, have been from the beginning of the world, and still are, the source of all the actions and enterprises which have ever been observed among mankind. Would you know the sentiments inclinations and course of life of the Greeks and Romans? Study well the temper and actions of the French and English. You cannot be much mistaken in transferring to the former most of the observations which you have made with regard to the latter. Mankind are so much the same, in all times and place, that history informs us of nothing new or strange in this particular. …Should a traveller, returning from a far country, bring us an account of men, wholly different from any with whom we were ever acquainted; men, who were entirely divested of avarice, ambition, or revenge; who knew no pleasure but friendship, generosity, and public spirit; we should immediately, from theses circumstances, detect the falsehood and prove him a liar, with the same certainly as if he had stuffed his narration with stories of centaurs and dragons, miracles and prodigies.
David Hume : An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding, Sect 8, Of Liberty and Necessity, Part 1, #65, pg. 479
Hume wrote:
We must not, however, expect that this uniformity of human actions should be carried to such a length as that all men, in the same circumstances will always act precisely in the same manner, without making any allowance for the diversity of characters, prejudices, and opinions. Such a uniformity in every particular, is found in no part of nature. On the contrary, from observing the variety of conduct in different men, we are enabled to form a greater variety of maxims, which still suppose a degree of uniformity and regularity.
David Hume : An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding, Sect 8, Of Liberty and Necessity, Part 1, #66, pg. 480
Hume wrote:
Are the manners of men different in different ages and countries? We learn thence, the great force of custom and education, which mould the human mind from its infancy and form it into a fixed and established character. Is the behaviour and conduct of the one sex very unlike that of the other? Is it thence we become acquainted with the different characters which nature has impressed upon the sexes, and which she preserves with constancy and regularity? Are the actions of the same person much diversified in the different periods of his life, from infancy to old age?
David Hume : An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding, Sect 8, Of Liberty and Necessity, Part 1, #66, pg. 480
Hume wrote:
The vulgar, who take things according to their first appearance, attribute the uncertainty of events to such an uncertainty in the causes as makes the latter often fail of their usual influence; though they meet with no impediment in their operation. But philosophers, observing that, almost in every part of nature, there is contained a vast variety of springs and principles, which are hid, by reason of their minuteness or remoteness, find, that it is at least possible the contrariety of events may not proceed from any contingency in the cause, but from the secret operation of contrary causes. This possibility is converted into certainty by farther observation when they remark that, upon an exact scrutiny a contrariety of effect always betrays a contrariety of causes, and proceeds from their mutual opposition.
David Hume : An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding, Sect 8, Of Liberty and Necessity, Part 1, #67, pg. 480
Hume wrote:
The mutual dependence of men is so great in all societies that scarce any human action is entirely complete in itself or is performed without some reference to the actions of other, which are requisite to make it answer fully the intention of the agent.
David Hume : An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding, Sect 8, Of Liberty and Necessity, Part 1, #69, pg. 481
Hume wrote:
It is universally allowed that nothing exists without a cause of its existence, and that chance, when strictly examined, is a mere negative word, and means not any real power which has anywhere a being in nature. But it is pretended that some causes are necessary, some are not necessary.
David Hume : An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding, Sect 8, Of Liberty and Necessity, Part 1, #74, pg. 484
Hume wrote:
These is no method of reasoning more common, and yet none more blameable, than, in philosophical disputes, to endeavour the refutation of any hypotheses, by a pretence of its dangerous consequences to religion and morality. When any opinion leads to absurdities, it is certainly false; but it is not certain that an opinion is false, because it is of dangerous consequences.
David Hume : An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding, Sect 8, Of Liberty and Necessity, Part 2, #75, pg. 484
Hume wrote:
Is the consequence just, because some human testimony has the utmost force and authority in some cases, when it relates the battle of Philippi or Pharsalia for instance; that therefore all kinds of testimony must, in all cases, have equal force and authority? Suppose that the Caesarean and Pompeian factions had, each of them, claimed the victory in these battles, and that the historian of each party had uniformly ascribed the advantage to their own side; how could mankind, at this distance, have been able to determine between them? The wise lend a very academic faith to every report which favours the passion of the reporter; whether it magnifies his country, his family, or himself, or in any other way strikes in with his natural inclinations an propensities.
David Hume : An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding, Sect 10, Of Miracles, Part 2, #97, pg. 495
VOCABULARY - David Hume : An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding
Who is "Voet" to whom is referred in David Hume's biographical note when he writes: "and they [his parents] fancied I was poring upon Voet and Vinius, Cicero and Virgil were the authors which I was secretly devouring.”?
From: Biographical note on David Hume, pg. 447
…three years later he had acquired a fair knowledge of Latin, slight acquaintance with Greek, and a literary taste inclining to “book of reasoning and philosophy, and to poetry and the polite authors.” His studious disposition led his family to believe that law was the proper profession for him, but he “found an insurmountable aversion to everything but the pursuits of philosophy and general learning; and they [his parents] fancied I was poring upon Voet and Vinius, Cicero and Virgil were the authors which I was secretly devouring.”
From: Biographical note on David Hume, pg. 447
…accepted the office of secretary to General St. Clair… engaged in an “expedition…” …he accompanied the general on a military embassy to the courts of Vienna and Turn on which he wore the uniform of an officer…introduced…as aid-de-camp to the general. He remarks that these two years almost the only interruption which my studies have received during the course of my life…
From: Biographical note on David Hume, pg. 447
That same year he was again unsuccessful in his attempt to obtain a professor’s chair at Edinburgh, this time as the successor to his friend, Adam Smith, in the chair of logic.
From: Biographical note on David Hume, pg. 447
Most of his efforts, however, were devoted to the writing of history, to which he may have turned his attention because of the success of his political and economic essays. Adam Smith had recommended that he begin with Henry VII, but he chose to start with the period of James I “an epoch “when, I thought, the misrepresentation of faction began chiefly to take place.”
From: Biographical note on David Hume, pg. 447
Although, not only independent, but opulent…and determined never more to set foot out of his native country, Hume in 1763 accepted an invitation to go to Paris as acting secretary of the embassy. For three years he enjoyed Parisian society. Meeting with men and women of all ranks and stations, he noted “the more I resiled from their excessive civilities, the more I was loaded with them.” He returned home, convinced “there is a real satisfaction in living at Paris.”
From: Biographical note on David Hume, pg. 447
Describing self: I was, I say, a man of mild dispositions, of command of temper, and of an open, social, and cheerful humour, capable of attachment, but little susceptible of enmity; and of great moderation in all my passions. Even my love of literary fame, my ruling passion, never soured my temper, not withstanding my frequent disappointments.”
From Advertisement of Hume’s An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding, pg. 450
But not finding it successful, he was sensible of his error in going to the press too early, and he cast the whole anew in the following pieces, where some negligences in his former reasoning an more in the expression, are, he hopes, corrected.
Hume wrote:
…the most durable, as well as justest fame, has been acquired by the easy philosophy, and that abstract reasoners seem hitherto to have enjoyed only a momentary reputation, from the caprice or ignorance of their own age, but have not been able to support their renown with more equitable posterity.
David Hume : An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding, Sect 1 Of the Different Species of Philosophy, #4, pg. 451
Hume wrote:
The mere philosopher…contribute nothing either to the advantage or pleasure of society; while he lives remote from communication with mankind and is wrapped up in principles and notions equally remote from their comprehension. …the mere ignorant is still more despised…entirely destitute of all relish for those noble entertainments. The perfect character is supposed to lie between those extremes; retaining an equal ability and taste for books, company, and business; preserving in conversation that discernment and delicacy which arise from polite letters; and in business, that probity and accuracy which are the natural result of a just philosophy.
David Hume : An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding, Sect 1 Of the Different Species of Philosophy, #4, pg. 452
Hume wrote:
But the mind requires some relaxation, and cannot always support its bent to care and industry. It seems, then that nature has pointed out a mixed kind of life as most suitable to the human race, and secretly admonished them to allow none of these biases to draw too much, so as to incapacitate them for other occupations and entertainments. Indulge your passion for science, says she, but let your science be human, and such as may have a direct reference to action and society. Abstruse thought and profound researches I prohibit, and will severely punish, but the pensive melancholy which they introduce, but the endless uncertainly win which they involve you, and by the cold reception which your pretended discoveries shall meet with, when communicated.
David Hume : An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding, Sect 1 Of the Different Species of Philosophy, #4, pg. 452
Hume wrote:
All polite letters are nothing but pictures of human life in various attitudes and situations; and inspire us with different sentiments, or praise, or blame, admiration or ridicule, according to the qualities of the object , which they set before us.
David Hume : An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding, Sect 1 Of the Different Species of Philosophy, #5, pg. 452
Hume wrote:
Accuracy is, in every case, advantageous to beauty, and just reasoning to delicate sentiment. In vain would we exalt the one by depreciating the other.
David Hume : An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding, Sect 1 Of the Different Species of Philosophy, #5, pg. 453
Hume wrote:
The sweetest and most inoffensive path of life leads through the avenues of science and learning; and whoever can either remove any obstructions in this way, or open up a new prospect, out so far to be esteemed a benefactor to mankind.
David Hume : An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding, Sect 1 Of the Different Species of Philosophy, #6, pg. 453
Hume wrote:
Chased from the open country, these robbers fly into the forest, and lie in wait to break in upon every unguarded avenue of the mind, and overwhelm it with religious fears and prejudices. The stoutest antagonist, if he remit his watch a moment, is oppressed. And many, through cowardice and folly, open the gates to the enemies, and willingly receive them with reverence and submission, as their legal sovereigns.
David Hume : An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding, Sect 1 Of the Different Species of Philosophy, #6, pg. 453
Hume wrote:
But is this a sufficient reason, why philosophers should desist from such researches, and leave superstition still in possession of her retreat? Is it not proper to draw an opposite conclusion, and perceive the necessity of carrying the war into the most secret recesses of the enemy? In vain do we hope, that name, from frequent disappointment, will at last abandon such airy sciences, and discover the proper province of human reason.
David Hume : An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding, Sect 1 Of the Different Species of Philosophy, #7, pg. 453
Hume wrote:
…the motive of blind despair can never reasonably have place in the sciences, since, however unsuccessful former attempts may have proved, there is still room to hope, that the industry, good fortune, or improved sagacity of succeeding generations may reach discoveries unknown to former ages. Each adventurous genius will still leap at the arduous prize, and find himself stimulated, rather than discouraged, by the failures of his predecessors; while he hopes that the glory of achieving so hard an adventure is reserved for him alone.
David Hume : An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding, Sect 1 Of the Different Species of Philosophy, #4, pg. 451
Hume wrote:
Accurate and just reasoning is the only catholic remedy, fitted for all persons and all dispositions; and is alone able to subvert that abstruse philosophy and metaphysical jargon, which being mixed up with popular superstition, renders it in a manner impenetrable to careless reasoners, and gives it the air of science and wisdom.
David Hume : An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding, Sect 1 Of the Different Species of Philosophy, #7, pg. 454
Hume wrote:
Everyone will readily allow, that there is a considerable difference between the perception of the mind, when a man feels the pain of excessive heat, or the pleasure of moderate warmth, and when he afterwards recalls to his memory this sensation, or anticipates it by his imagination. These faculties may mimic or copy the perceptions of the senses; but they never can entirely reach the force and vivacity of the original sentiment. … we could almost say we feel or see it; but except the mind be disordered by disease or madness they never can arrive at such a pitch of vivacity...
David Hume : An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding, Sect 2 Of the Origin of Ideas, #11, pg. 455
Hume wrote:
When we reflect on our past sentiments and affections, our thought is a faithful mirror, and copies its objects truly; but the colours which it employs are faint and dull, in comparison of those in which or original perceptions were clothed.
David Hume : An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding, Sect 1 Of the Different Species of Philosophy, #11, pg. 455
Hume wrote:
A man of mild manner can form no idea of inveterate revenge or cruelty; nor can a selfish heart easily conceive the heights of friendship and generosity. It is readily allowed, that other beings may possess many sense of which we can have no conception; because the ideas of them have never been introduced to us in the only manner by which an idea can have access to the mind, to wit, by the actual feeling and sensation.
David Hume : An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding, Sect 1 Of the Different Species of Philosophy, #15, pg. 456
Hume wrote:
Thus it is a law of motion, discovered by experience, that the moment or force of any body in motion is in the compound ratio or proportion of its solid contents and its velocity; and consequently, that a small force may remove the greatest obstacle or raise the greatest weight, if by any contrivance or machinery, we can increase the velocity of that force, so as to make it an overmatch for its antagonist. Geometry assists us in the application of this law, by giving us the just dimensions of al the parts and figures which can enter into any species of machine; but still the discovery of the law itself is owing merely to experience, and all the abstract reasonings in the world could never lead us to one step towards the knowledge of it.
David Hume : An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding, Sect 4, Sceptical Doubts concerning the Operations of the Understanding, Part 1, #27, pg. 460
Hume wrote:
A man must be very sagacious who could discover by reasoning that crystal is the effect of heat, and ice of cold, without being previously acquainted with the operation of these qualities.
David Hume : An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding, Sect 4, Sceptical Doubts concerning the Operations of the Understanding, Part 1, #27, pg. 460
Hume wrote:
What is the foundation of all our reasonings and conclusions concerning that relation? It may be replied in one word, Experience.
David Hume : An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding, Sect 4, Sceptical Doubts concerning the Operations of the Understanding, Part 2, #28, pg. 460
Hume wrote:
… nature has kept us at a great distance from all her secrets and has afforded us only the knowledge of a few superficial qualities of objects; while she conceals from us those powers and principles on which the influence of those objects entirely depends.
David Hume : An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding, Sect 4, Sceptical Doubts concerning the Operations of the Understanding, Part 2, #29, pg. 461
Hume wrote:
… a man is guilty of unpardonable arrogance who concludes, because an argument has excaped his own investigation, that therefore it does not really exist.
David Hume : An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding, Sect 4, Sceptical Doubts concerning the Operations of the Understanding, Part 2, #32, pg. 463
Hume wrote:
It is certain that the most ignorant and stupid peasants – nay infants, nay even brute beasts – improve by experience, and learn the qualities of natural objects, by observing the effects which result from them.
David Hume : An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding, Sect 4, Sceptical Doubts concerning the Operations of the Understanding, Part 2, #33, pg. 463
Hume wrote:
Nothing is more free than the imagination of man; and though it cannot exceed that original stock of ideas furnished by the internal and external senses, it has unlimited power of mixing compounding, separating, and dividing these ideas, in all the varieties of fiction and vision. … For as the mind has authority over all its ideas, it could voluntarily annex this particular idea to any fiction, and consequently be able to believe whatever it pleases; contrary to what we find by daily experience.
David Hume : An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding, Sect 5, Sceptical Solution of these Doubts, Part 2, #39, pg. 466
Hume wrote:
It follows, therefore, that the difference between fiction and belief lies in some sentiment or feeling, which is annexed to the latter, not tot he former, and which depends not on the will, nor can be commanded at pleasure. It must be excited by nature, like all other sentiments; and must arise from the particular situation, in which the mind is placed at any particular juncture.
David Hume : An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding, Sect 5, Sceptical Solution of these Doubts, Part 2, #39, pg. 466
Hume wrote:
…upon the appearance of the picture of an absent friend, our idea of him is evidently enlivened by the resemblance, and that every passion, which that idea occasions, whether of joy or sorrow, acquires new force and vigour. In producing this effect, there concur both a relation and a present impression.
David Hume : An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding, Sect 5, Sceptical Solution of these Doubts, Part 2, #41, pg. 468
Hume wrote:
…we believe our friend to have once existed. Continguity to home can never excite our ideas of home, unless we believe that it really existed.
David Hume : An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding, Sect 5, Sceptical Solution of these Doubts, Part 2, #44, pg. 469
Hume wrote:
Though there be no such thing as chance in the world; our ignorance of the real cause of any event has the same influence on the understanding, and begets a like species of belief or opinion.
David Hume : An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding, Sect 6, Of Probability, #46, pg. 469
Hume wrote:
The great advantage of the mathematical sciences above the moral consists in this, that the ideas of the former, being sensible, are always clear and determinate, the smallest distinction between then is immediately perceptible, and the same terms are still expressive of the same ideas , without ambiguity or variation. An oval is never mistaken for a circle, nor an hyperbola for an ellipsis. The isosceles and scalenum are distinguished by boundaries more exact than vice and virtue, right and wrong.
David Hume : An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding, Sect 7, Of the Idea of necessary Connexion, Part 1, #48, pg. 470
Hume wrote:
There are no ideas, which occur in metaphysics, more obscure and uncertain, than those of power, force, energy, or necessary connexion, of which it is every moment necessary for us to treat in all our disquisitions. …all our ideas are copies of our impressions, or in other words, that it is impossible for us to think of anything, which we have not antecedently felt, either by our external or internal senses.
David Hume : An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding, Sect 7, Of the Idea of necessary Connexion, Part 1, #49, pg. 471
Hume wrote:
We are more master of our thoughts in the morning than in the evening: Fasting, than after a full meal.
David Hume : An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding, Sect 7, Of the Idea of necessary Connexion, Part 1, #53, pg. 474
Hume wrote:
Not content with the principle, that nothing exists buy by his will, that nothing possesses any power but by his concession: They rob nature, and all created beings, of every power, in order to render their dependence on the Deity still more sensible and immediate. They consider not that, by this theory, they diminish, instead of magnifying, the grandeur of those attributes, which they affect so much to celebrate. It argues surely more power in the Deity to delegate a certain degree of power to inferior creatures than to produce very thing by his own immediate volition. It argues more wisdom to contrive at first the fabric of the world with such perfect foresight that, of itself, and by its proper operation, it may serve all the purposes of providence, than if the great Creator were obligated every moment to adjust its parts, and animate by his breath all the wheels of that stupendous machine.
David Hume : An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding, Sect 7, Of the Idea of necessary Connexion, Part 1, #56, pg. 475
Hume wrote:
…this theory of the universal energy and operation of the Supreme Being is too bold ever to carry conviction with it to a man, sufficiently apprized of the weakness of human reason, and narrow limits to which it is confined in all its operation.
David Hume : An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding, Sect 7, Of the Idea of necessary Connexion, Part 1, #57, pg. 475
Hume wrote:
… if men attempt the discussion of question which lie entirely beyond the reach of human capacity, such as those concerning the origin of worlds, or the economy of the intellectual system or region of spirits, they may long beat the air in their fruitless contests, and never arrive at any determinate conclusion.
David Hume : An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding, Sect 8, Of Liberty and Necessity, Part 1, #56, pg. 478
Hume wrote:
It is universally acknowledged that there is a great uniformity among the actions of men, in all nations and ages, and that human nature remains still the same, in its principles and operations. The same motives always produce the same actions: The same events follow from the same causes. Ambition, avarice, self-love, vanity, friendship, generosity, public spirit: these passions, mixed in various degrees, and distributed through society, have been from the beginning of the world, and still are, the source of all the actions and enterprises which have ever been observed among mankind. Would you know the sentiments inclinations and course of life of the Greeks and Romans? Study well the temper and actions of the French and English. You cannot be much mistaken in transferring to the former most of the observations which you have made with regard to the latter. Mankind are so much the same, in all times and place, that history informs us of nothing new or strange in this particular. …Should a traveller, returning from a far country, bring us an account of men, wholly different from any with whom we were ever acquainted; men, who were entirely divested of avarice, ambition, or revenge; who knew no pleasure but friendship, generosity, and public spirit; we should immediately, from theses circumstances, detect the falsehood and prove him a liar, with the same certainly as if he had stuffed his narration with stories of centaurs and dragons, miracles and prodigies.
David Hume : An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding, Sect 8, Of Liberty and Necessity, Part 1, #65, pg. 479
Hume wrote:
We must not, however, expect that this uniformity of human actions should be carried to such a length as that all men, in the same circumstances will always act precisely in the same manner, without making any allowance for the diversity of characters, prejudices, and opinions. Such a uniformity in every particular, is found in no part of nature. On the contrary, from observing the variety of conduct in different men, we are enabled to form a greater variety of maxims, which still suppose a degree of uniformity and regularity.
David Hume : An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding, Sect 8, Of Liberty and Necessity, Part 1, #66, pg. 480
Hume wrote:
Are the manners of men different in different ages and countries? We learn thence, the great force of custom and education, which mould the human mind from its infancy and form it into a fixed and established character. Is the behaviour and conduct of the one sex very unlike that of the other? Is it thence we become acquainted with the different characters which nature has impressed upon the sexes, and which she preserves with constancy and regularity? Are the actions of the same person much diversified in the different periods of his life, from infancy to old age?
David Hume : An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding, Sect 8, Of Liberty and Necessity, Part 1, #66, pg. 480
Hume wrote:
The vulgar, who take things according to their first appearance, attribute the uncertainty of events to such an uncertainty in the causes as makes the latter often fail of their usual influence; though they meet with no impediment in their operation. But philosophers, observing that, almost in every part of nature, there is contained a vast variety of springs and principles, which are hid, by reason of their minuteness or remoteness, find, that it is at least possible the contrariety of events may not proceed from any contingency in the cause, but from the secret operation of contrary causes. This possibility is converted into certainty by farther observation when they remark that, upon an exact scrutiny a contrariety of effect always betrays a contrariety of causes, and proceeds from their mutual opposition.
David Hume : An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding, Sect 8, Of Liberty and Necessity, Part 1, #67, pg. 480
Hume wrote:
The mutual dependence of men is so great in all societies that scarce any human action is entirely complete in itself or is performed without some reference to the actions of other, which are requisite to make it answer fully the intention of the agent.
David Hume : An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding, Sect 8, Of Liberty and Necessity, Part 1, #69, pg. 481
Hume wrote:
It is universally allowed that nothing exists without a cause of its existence, and that chance, when strictly examined, is a mere negative word, and means not any real power which has anywhere a being in nature. But it is pretended that some causes are necessary, some are not necessary.
David Hume : An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding, Sect 8, Of Liberty and Necessity, Part 1, #74, pg. 484
Hume wrote:
These is no method of reasoning more common, and yet none more blameable, than, in philosophical disputes, to endeavour the refutation of any hypotheses, by a pretence of its dangerous consequences to religion and morality. When any opinion leads to absurdities, it is certainly false; but it is not certain that an opinion is false, because it is of dangerous consequences.
David Hume : An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding, Sect 8, Of Liberty and Necessity, Part 2, #75, pg. 484
Hume wrote:
Is the consequence just, because some human testimony has the utmost force and authority in some cases, when it relates the battle of Philippi or Pharsalia for instance; that therefore all kinds of testimony must, in all cases, have equal force and authority? Suppose that the Caesarean and Pompeian factions had, each of them, claimed the victory in these battles, and that the historian of each party had uniformly ascribed the advantage to their own side; how could mankind, at this distance, have been able to determine between them? The wise lend a very academic faith to every report which favours the passion of the reporter; whether it magnifies his country, his family, or himself, or in any other way strikes in with his natural inclinations an propensities.
David Hume : An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding, Sect 10, Of Miracles, Part 2, #97, pg. 495
VOCABULARY - David Hume : An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding
Who is "Voet" to whom is referred in David Hume's biographical note when he writes: "and they [his parents] fancied I was poring upon Voet and Vinius, Cicero and Virgil were the authors which I was secretly devouring.”?
Johan Esebius Voet?
Beautifully illustrated study on beetles by Johan Eusebius Voet (1706-1778). Johan's father, Carel Borchart Voet (1671-1744 or 1745), who was employed as court painter by the Earl of Portland, had made a series of drawings of insects for King William. Johan followed in his father's footsteps and, in addition to his activities as a medical doctor and his numerous works on new versions of rhymed psalms, worked on the present systematic catalogue of beetles. Voet gives a general introduction followed by a description of the depicted species. In each volume, the text is given first in Latin, then in French and finally in Dutch, each with its own pagination and signature series. During Voet's life the first 48 plates of volume I and the first 24 plates of volume II with the accompanying text in three languages were published.
Beautifully illustrated study on beetles by Johan Eusebius Voet (1706-1778). Johan's father, Carel Borchart Voet (1671-1744 or 1745), who was employed as court painter by the Earl of Portland, had made a series of drawings of insects for King William. Johan followed in his father's footsteps and, in addition to his activities as a medical doctor and his numerous works on new versions of rhymed psalms, worked on the present systematic catalogue of beetles. Voet gives a general introduction followed by a description of the depicted species. In each volume, the text is given first in Latin, then in French and finally in Dutch, each with its own pagination and signature series. During Voet's life the first 48 plates of volume I and the first 24 plates of volume II with the accompanying text in three languages were published.
Jacob Ferdinan Voet?
– 1680 court painter to Louis the XIVJacob Ferdinand Voet was a Flemish painter who made his career in Rome in the second half of the 17th century.
He was an expert portrait painter who combined solid Flemish professionalism with stylistic features from French and Italian Baroque portraiture. In the history of art, Voet was sinking into undeserved oblivion, until in the 1930's Charles Sterling suggested he had painted some portraits previously attributed to Laurent Fauchier. Pierre Bautier then started to study Voet's life and work.
Voet became a much sought-after portrait painter to the Papal court and the Roman aristocracy. He was patronized by Queen Christina of Sweden, who was then resident in Rome, and painted her portrait as well as that of her friend, Cardinal Azzolino. Certain Englishmen who visited Rome on their Grand Tour, also commissioned Voet to paint their portraits. For Roman palaces, Voet painted entire Galleries of Beauties and rows of cardinals. His success in Rome ended in forced exile in 1678, for his brush was an instrument of wantonness . Voet went to France and finally returned to Antwerp.
Voet specialized in half-length portraits, in which all attention is concentrated on the subject, who emerges from a neutral, dark background. He was a sophisticated master of his medium, painting with an effortless accuracy and a fluid ease. Voet's subjects tend to have a reflective, sometimes slightly anguished expression. Usually they have very striking, memorable eyes, always large and evocative, sometimes even startling, with a haunting look like that in the portrait of the young man in the Sinebrychoff Collection. Voet's portraits have always something strange about them, but seldom has he been able to so convincingly taint his subject's superficial elegance with the hint of some disquieting, almost frightening secret.
To be researched later: Who is author Vinius, also referred to in biographical quote?
– 1680 court painter to Louis the XIVJacob Ferdinand Voet was a Flemish painter who made his career in Rome in the second half of the 17th century.
He was an expert portrait painter who combined solid Flemish professionalism with stylistic features from French and Italian Baroque portraiture. In the history of art, Voet was sinking into undeserved oblivion, until in the 1930's Charles Sterling suggested he had painted some portraits previously attributed to Laurent Fauchier. Pierre Bautier then started to study Voet's life and work.
Voet became a much sought-after portrait painter to the Papal court and the Roman aristocracy. He was patronized by Queen Christina of Sweden, who was then resident in Rome, and painted her portrait as well as that of her friend, Cardinal Azzolino. Certain Englishmen who visited Rome on their Grand Tour, also commissioned Voet to paint their portraits. For Roman palaces, Voet painted entire Galleries of Beauties and rows of cardinals. His success in Rome ended in forced exile in 1678, for his brush was an instrument of wantonness . Voet went to France and finally returned to Antwerp.
Voet specialized in half-length portraits, in which all attention is concentrated on the subject, who emerges from a neutral, dark background. He was a sophisticated master of his medium, painting with an effortless accuracy and a fluid ease. Voet's subjects tend to have a reflective, sometimes slightly anguished expression. Usually they have very striking, memorable eyes, always large and evocative, sometimes even startling, with a haunting look like that in the portrait of the young man in the Sinebrychoff Collection. Voet's portraits have always something strange about them, but seldom has he been able to so convincingly taint his subject's superficial elegance with the hint of some disquieting, almost frightening secret.
To be researched later: Who is author Vinius, also referred to in biographical quote?
resiled , pg. 447 1. To spring back, especially to resume a former position or structure after being stretched or compressed.
Civility, pg. 447 1 archaic : training in the humanities 2 a : civilized conduct; especially : courtesy, politeness b : a polite act or expression
caprice , pg. 451 1.a sudden, unpredictable change, as of one's mind or the weather.
2.a tendency to change one's mind without apparent or adequate motive; whimsicality; capriciousness: With the caprice of a despotic king, he alternated between kindness and cruelty.
To be researched later: What are Polite letters, pg. 452?
Probity, pg. 452 integrity and uprightness; honesty.
Abstruse, pg. 452 to conceal, from abs-, ab- + trudere to push — more at threat.
Indolence, pg. 453 Habitual laziness; sloth.
Sanguine, pg. 454 reddish, often tending to brown, color of chalk used in drawing. The word may also refer to a drawing done in sanguine
Chimerical, pg. 454 1 : existing only as the product of unchecked imagination : fantastically visionary or improbable 2 : given to fantastic schemes.
Continguity, pg. 469 A contiguity is a continuous mass, or a series of things in contact or proximity. In a different meaning, contiguity is the state of being contiguous
Disquisitions, pg. 471 A formal discourse on a subject, often in writing.
Antecedent, pg. 471 preceding event, condition, cause, phrase, or word.
Avarice, pg. 479 an extremely strong desire for money and possessions
Opulent, pg. 482 deluxe: rich and superior in quality; "a princely sum"; "gilded dining rooms"
Standish, pg. 482Antiquated term for what became known as the inkstand in the Victorian era.An inkstand is a stand or tray used to house writing instruments, with a tightly-capped inkwell and a sand shaker for rapid drying. A penwiper would often be included, and from the mid-nineteenth century, a compartment for steel nibs, which replaced quill pens.
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.