David Hume Research Paper

Influencing centuries of individuals and philosophers alike, David Hume employed an entirely different aspect of philosophy throughout his lifetime; one that invoked empiricists’ values while demonstrating a moral distinction caused not from reason, but from sentiment. Hume has become a figurehead for conceptions of human nature as well as human morality, emphasizing the naturalistic ethical view of virtues and vices as well as creating a clear understanding of human understanding through various components. David Hume exemplified his empiricist ethics by grasping the concept of knowledge, causation, and perception to accurately display the art of human nature.

David Hume lived a moderately short life starting on August 26th, 1711 where he

It should be noted that “Cicero was an early favorite of Hume’s and exerted an important and lasting influence” that can be seen stylistically throughout his writing. By 1729, when he was merely eighteen years of age, Hume began to convey his “new scene of thought”, where he believed “…learning about human nature [was] the key to all knowledge” in his first book, A Treatise of Human Nature, which was “composed between 1734 through 1737” while he traveled through France. Hume fell in love with France, but could not afford the living costs; he moved around until he found an adequate area to complete his book in: La Fleche. By 1736, Hume had mostly finished his book and returned to England to get it published. To much of his dismay, Hume had a great deal of trouble finding someone to publish his book, but this time of search gave him the chance to critique his own writing, thus leading to the omission of the section ‘Of Miracles’ from A Treatise of Human Nature. Eventually, Hume found someone to publish his book, and it was segmented into three books. The first two books were published during the year of 1739 by John Noon and the last was published in “…1740, by a different publisher, Thomas

Essentially, perceptions encompass every object the mind can be conscious of, from colors to feelings. In his theory, the ultimate distinction within perceptions is between ideas, or thoughts, and impressions. He thought that impressions were stronger and more vibrant perceptions, while ideas were feebler and weaker perceptions that occur when imagining or thinking. Hume stated that “…impressions comprehend all our sensations, passions, and emotions, as they make their first appearance in the soul…concretely, impressions comprise all our more lively perceptions, when we hear, or see, or feel, or love, or hate, or desire, or will.” Furthermore, the ideas and impressions dichotomy correlates to the commonsense division between sentiment and thought. For instance, there is a definite difference between the feeling the pain of cutting one’s hand, and remembering that said pain at a different time. Hume divided both ideas and perceptions into two subclasses. For ideas he divided those of imagination and those of memory, and for perceptions he divided impressions of sensation and impressions of reflexion, or secondary impressions. For example, if someone suffers a painful gash to the leg, that will be their impression of sensation. Numerous months later, if that person recalls their memory of the