ASSIGNMENT

Topic: David Hume’s expression on Abstract Ideas

Submitted by:
Name: Ishrat Jahan Tahmin
Roll- 142
Batch- 15
Department Of Philosophy,
University of Dhaka.

Submitted to:
Mrs. Murshida Rahman
Lecturer

Submission Date: November 11, 2024

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Introduction:

“A Treaties of Human Nature: Being an Attempt to Introduce the

Experimental Method of Reasoning into Moral Subjects” is a book by

Scottish philosopher David Hume. It is considered Hume’s best work and

one of the most influential works in the history of philosophy. In the

introduction Hume presents the idea of placing all science and philosophy

on a novel foundation: namely an empirical investigation into human

nature. Against the philosophical rationalists, Hume argues that the

passions, rather than the reason cause human behavior.

Part 1 of the first volume of the mentioned book talks about of ideas, their

origin, composition, connexion and abstraction. We will comprehensively

discuss about ideas and how the notions came into being and what views

and thoughts Hume had for abstract ideas.

Not only the origin of impressions and ideas, Hume discussed about

their presence in space and time along with how they shape knowledge

along with immense probabilities. Later on in the same book he mentioned

about his skepticism regarding reason, senses, ancient to modern

philosophical analogies and various other things. As David Hume was a

qualitative idealist, we get his constructive discussion on the abstract ideas.

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Before we get to see his viewpoint on abstract ideas we have to go through

his view on the origin and branches of ideas and impressions.

Origin of Idea:

“All the perceptions of human mind resolve themselves into two distinct

kinds, which I shall call Impressions and Ideas. The difference between

these consists in the degrees of force and liveliness with which they strike

upon the mind, and make their way into our thought or consciousness,”

(Hume, 1739-1740, pg-1).

Here we can see Hume describes human perception can be divided into two

different kinds namely Impression and Idea. Though they both are our

sense perception they have distinct features that makes them stand out or

makes them two different kinds. Anything that we experience through our

five senses are called perception, these perceptions are sometimes very

strong and sometimes they are very faint, the feeling of liveliness in these

perceptions creates the distinction which we will get to know as

Impressions and Ideas. Now let us get into the details of the definition of

Impressions and Ideas.

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 Impressions: The vivid and forceful sensory experience or the initial

sensory expression is called Impressions according to David Hume.

The first-hand experience we get or we sense is the impression of

that feeling , impressions are not just frail feelings that momentarily

makes our sensory nerves active rather they introduce our sensory

organs to new feelings, new experiences for future encounter of

similar incidents. For example- when a child accidentally touches

any hot object he feels the unusual temperature and cries out loud

because of the pain, this is his impression of hot objects. Similarly if

he falls down on a bumpy road that will be his impression of a

bumpy road. This way they learn of newer things by encountering

different incidents and this encounters are defined as Impressions by

Hume. Impressions can be of two types- 1. Simple Impressions

2. Complex Impressions

 Ideas: Hume defines Ideas as the less lively experiences or the

reflection of previous experiences or as what we got to know as

Impressions. Hume believed that all human knowledge and thoughts

are ultimately derived from these initial sensory impressions.

Essentially impressions are the immediate and strong experiences.

Hume argues that all our ideas are ultimately based on these original

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 impressions even though they can be combined, manipulated and

recombined in various ways by the mind. For example- When we

talk about a specific color our mind remembers the first impression

it had from watching that specific color and describes it as

remembered, when we think about a smell while talking about it we

can remember the smell from the first time we experienced it and

explain accordingly. This is Ideas. What our brain cells have stored

from the first experiences from our early childhood are Ideas that

help us to move forward everyday in every sphere of life. Ideas can

be of two types too: 1. Simple Ideas

2. Complex Ideas.

The types of Impressions and Ideas should be discussed thoroughly to

understand Hume’s abstract ideas a little better as these are the

beginning of the entire discourse. From this discussion we will be able

to distinguish between Impressions and Ideas more vividly and can use

those to further judge of what Hume said.

At first, we need to learn more about Impressions and its two types,

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Simple Impressions:

Simple Impressions are basic sensory experience that cannot be

divided into simpler parts. These are direct and straightforward

perceptions. For example-

 The color is red

 The taste of lemon is sour

 The feeling of warmth from sun

Even if we try we cannot simplify the statements we get here, one single

quality of an object that we perceive can be said as the simple

impression.

Complex Impressions:

Complex Impressions are composed of multiple simple impressions

combined together. These impressions can be broken down into simpler

parts. For example-

 A view of a tree (composed of impressions of green leaves, brown

trunk, the shape of the tree etc.)

 The taste of a meal (a combination of tastes, smells and textures)

 The experience of being at a concert (combining the sounds of

music, the sight of the stage, the feeling of the crowd etc.)

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 Hume believed that complex impressions are made up of various simple

impressions that our minds combine to form a cohesive experience.

This distinction helps us to understand how we process and categorize

our sensory experiences.

Hume also defines Impressions by a different measure of division and

we get two types of Impressions- 1. Impression of Sensation

2. Impression of Reflection.

Impression of Sensation:

These are the direct experiences we have from external stimuli through

our senses. For example- The sight of a sunset, the sound of music, the

taste of a delicious meal or the feel of a breeze on your skin.

Impression of Reflection:

These are the experiences of internal states or feeling that arise from

our own mental activities. For example- emotions like anger, joy, fear or

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the feeling of hunger and thirst. These impressions are not directly cause

by the external objects but are reflections of our internal states.

Hume’s distinction helps us to understand how our mind processes and

categorizes experiences, forming the basis for all our thoughts and

knowledge. He believed that all ideas in our mind originate from these two

types of impressions. Now we get to know about the types of ideas and

discuss about it.

Simple Ideas:

Simple ideas are the basic building blocks of thought, derived directly

from simple impressions. They cannot be divided into smaller components.

For example-

 The idea of the color red (from the simple impression of seeing the

color red)

 The idea of the taste of a lemon (from the simple impression of

tasting a lemon)

 The idea of warmth (from the simple impression of feeling warmth)

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 Simple ideas are the less vivid or less lively version of simple ideas

that stays in our memories. Simple ideas are generated from simple

impressions.

Complex Ideas:

Complex ideas are combinations of simple ideas. These can be

created by mind by compounding, comparing or abstracting from

simple ideas. For example-

 The idea of an apple (combining the ideas of shape,

color, taste and texture)

 The idea of a unicorn (combining ideas of a horse and

a horn)

 The idea of a concert (combining ideas of music,

crowd, venue etc.)

Hume believed that our mind has the capacity to manipulate simple ideas

to create complex ideas, which helps us to understand and interact with the

world around us.

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Now that we got a good explanation of impressions and ideas we can

slowly start the discussion about Hume’s viewpoint about Abstract Ideas.

Abstract Ideas:

Hume says in his book that Abstract or general ideas, whether they be

general or particular in the mind’s conception of them. When we consider

a specific object universal or general we consider everything of that object

carrying same qualities or so, but Hume and in his book he states Dr.

Berkeley states that “All general ideas are nothing but particular ones,

annexed to a certain term, which gives them a more extensive signification

and makes them recall upon occasion other individuals, which are similar

to them.” (Hume, 1739-1740, Page-17)

In an exemplary way we can say that the abstract idea of a man represents

men of all possible sizes and qualities, which is actually not possibly be

true. It seems absurd to support the claim of one general idea can represent

every particular idea regardless of the inherent qualities and quantities. But

that this inference is erroneous, Hume endeavours to prove that it’s utterly

impossible to conceive any quality and quantity, without forming a precise

notion of it’s degrees. Along with this he also mentions that the capacity

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of mind be not infinite, yet we can at once form a notion of all possible

degrees of quality and quantity, in such a manner at least, as, however

imperfect it might be it can serve the purpose of reflexion and conversation.

We can explain this better with a simple example. Let us think about a

triangle. Now we all know that triangles mean an object that has three sides.

We can have a general idea of a triangle but every triangle is different from

each other. Despite having three sides their angles might be of different

measure even the length of the sides might differ, it can be right angled or

it can be an equilateral triangle. This is what Hume talks about, when we

have a general (or abstract as said) idea of an object every single object that

falls under the idea of that is not same in their quality and quantity. Even

though we say it in an universal way each triangle has their own degrees of

qualities and quantities that make them precisely different from each other.

It might seem like the general idea of an object cannot exist if we talk

about how in reality every particular idea included in the general idea has

their own degree of qualities and quantities, it is in fact possible. When two

or more than two different persons are talking about triangles, they all have

their own ideas of triangles that probably doesn’t match with the others.

For one the triangle they envision inside his head might be an equilateral

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triangle where as another person can envision a right angled triangle. Both

of them are having a conversation where triangle is the general idea but

what they envision or perceive differs person to person entirely.

This is where the actual recognition comes through that even if we are to

discuss any topic or any object as a general idea whether it is actually

universally the same to everyone or not. From our simple example of the

triangles we saw that even if triangles that are a three sided object we are

discussing about it has many other different qualities that makes each of

them unique. Same if we say about men if we are to think about a man in

general everyone will think of a man that they see more often or is the

stereotype to them. We can clearly understand that these stereotypes are

different for everyone, some might think of a tall black man with ripped

muscles or some might think of a lean blonde white man as the general idea

of a man.

This is how the discourse swiftly proves the point Hume tried to make in

his extended discussion about abstract ideas how they do not make sense

in actuality. When we are discussing a general idea even though it is named

general it ultimately is an infinite combination of numerous particular ideas

that exist from different perceptions, a perception that some people might

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be aware of and a perception they might not be. As no object cannot appear

in our mind without being perceived through both its degrees of qualities

and quantities we cannot overlook this in anyway. Thus objects of similar

modes that are classified under the same general object name are bound to

have different qualities and quantities. As the universal perception is not a

plausible thing the next best thing to consider is that general idea is not

general idea rather a combination of particular ideas that we perceive

personally and fit the loose mold of naming as the same thing some other

people have perceived.

From the extensive discussion we can understand the point David Hume

made by discussing the abstract ideas in his book “A Treaties of Human

Nature”. As impression and ideas are deemed as almost the same thing

only differing in their liveliness and strength of feeling, in no way we can

deny what some other person have had an impression of and it leads us to

believe in the ultimate answer of our discussing topic here that General or

Abstract ideas are not exactly general or simple cannot be general or

universal to everyone.

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Conclusion:

In conclusion we can say that David Hume explained the best way

possible in his book about perception and how it could be categorized into

impressions and ideas. Not only that he swiftly presents how impressions

and ideas have their own different types and also shows the readers how to

comprehend them without confusing about their originality. After all these

primary discussions he dives into a deeper question that involves our

chosen topic Abstract Ideas and let everyone know what Abstracts ideas

are.

Abstract ideas are used to generalize an object in any humanly

discussion but if we think profoundly we will be able to see that those are

not general rather combination of infinite number of different perceptions

from different people and has it’s own degrees of qualities and quantities.

Through some very simple examples and explanations we can see the point

of view of David Hume which he was trying to showcase to the world to

understand the depth of understanding of defining something that could be

faulty if presented in a discourse with numerous logical inferences.

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 In the end we can learn from the whole discussion that anything that

might seem like a good proposition might not be actually one hundred

percent true but back and forth logical inference can show us whether a

theory presented or defined is actually acceptable or not, here in this case

the first presented theory of Abstract ideas were not properly sought so

Hume helped us to see it from a different light and do amends in the theory

for further discussions.

~The end~

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