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80 The particular conception Hume has of philosophy as an empirical „science of man‟ is to him the true emergence of modern philosophy. Hume‟s philosophy can be said to be shaped by the following dispositions:

a. That all our ideas are acquired from impressions of sensation,

b. That we cannot conceive of anything different from what our experiences gives us, c. That a matter of fact can never be proved a priori. It must be discovered by or

inferred from experience. In order to achieve this task, Hume “proposes to do this by consulting experience.”¹⁶

It is based on this frame of mind that Hume‟s extreme empiricism was developed.

81 our sensations, passions, and emotions, as they make their first appearance in the soul. By ideas, I mean the faint images of these in thinking and reasoning”.¹⁸

Perception arises through the direct contact of the senses with the object of sense perception and this is what gives us the impression of the object. As I am now with my books writing on them, I have a very strong perception of my book. This is what Hume meant by impression. However, when I leave my study room, I will have the idea of my study room, I will then have the ideas of my books furnished by the impressions of my sense experience.

This is evident in Stumpf‟s comment on Hume that, “the original stuff of thought is an impression‟‟¹⁹. So the origin of ideas is nothing but the impressions we have from sense perception. Harold Noonan observed that; „„Hume‟s understanding of the origin of ideas

“intends to serve as the foundation of his (Hume‟s) philosophy”.²⁰

By ideas, Hume meant faint images of impressions in thinking and reasoning, such, for instance, are all the perceptions excited by the present discourse, excepting only those which arise from the sight and touch, and excepting the immediate pleasure of uneasiness it may occasion. Our ideas, Hume said, may approach to our impressions like in sleep, in fever, in madness, or in any violent emotions of soul; on the other hand, it may sometimes happen, that our impressions are so faint and low that we cannot distinguish them from our ideas, but in general, “they are so different that no one can make a scruple to rank them under distinct head, and assign to each of a peculiar name to mark the difference”.²¹

Ideas however to Hume, have a great resemblance with our impressions except their degree of force and vivacity. The one seemed to be, in a manner, the reflection of the other, so that all the perceptions of the mind are double and appear both as impressions and ideas.“When I shut my eyes and I think of my chamber, the ideas from the exact representations of the

82 impressions I felt nor is there any circumstance of the one, which is not to be found in the other, in running over my other perceptions. If I find still the same resemblance and representation”.²² The impression Hume was making here is that ideas and impressions appear always to correspond to each other.

Another division of our perception which extends itself both to our impressions and ideas are simple and complex. Hume distinguished between simple impressions and complex impressions. Simple impressions are the impressions made in our minds by objects when we perceive them, while complex impressions are combinations of simple impressions. He similarly distinguished between simple ideas and complex ideas. Simple ideas are faint images of simple impressions, while complex ideas are combinations of simple ideas.

Simple perceptions or impressions and ideas are such as to admit of no distinction or separation. The complexes are the contrary to these and may be distinguished into parts.

Though a particular colour, taste and smell, are qualities all united together in this apple, it is very easy to perceive they are not the same, but are at least distinguishable from each other.

Hume later observed that many of our complex ideas never had impressions that correspond to them, and that many of our complex impressions never exactly copied ideas. Hume perceived therefore, that though there is, in general, a great resemblance between our complex impressions and ideas, yet the rule is not universally true that they are exact copies of each other. He therefore affirmed that every simple idea has a simple impression, a correspondent idea, “Hence anyone who denies this universal resemblance, Hume desires the person to show a single impression that has not a corresponding idea. If he does not answer this challenge as it is certain he cannot, as we may from his silence and our own

83 observation, establish our conclusion”²³. Thus we find out that our simple ideas and impressions resemble each other.

Impressions and ideas as they stand with regard to their existence and which of them causes and which effects is this, Hume formed a general proposition that “all our simple idea in the first appearance, are derived from simple impressions, which are correspondent to them, and which they exactly represent”.²⁴

By a review of what Hume earlier asserted, that every simple impression with a correspondent idea, and every simple idea with a correspondent impression form this constant conjunction of resembling perceptions. Hume concluded that there is a great connection between our correspondent impressions and ideas, and that the existence of the one has a considerable influence upon the other. (Such constant conjunction in such an infinite number of instances) Hume said, can never arise from chance, but clearly proves a dependence of the impressions on the ideas, or of the ideas on the impressions. Hume therefore placed impressions before ideas. To this Hume said “I consider the order of their first appearance, and find, by constant experience, that the simple impressions always take the precedence, of their correspondent ideas but never appear in the contrary order”.²⁵

Hume therefore concluded that impressions are formed from objects and ideas are formed from impressions and that we cannot perceive any colour or feel any sensation merely upon thinking of them. To this Hume said; “The constant conjunction of our resembling perceptions, is convincing proof, that the one are the causes of the other, and this priority of the impressions is an equal proof, that our impressions are the cause of our ideas not our ideas of our impression”.²⁶

84 Ideas Hume continued, are dependent on impressions not only for their materials but also for the legitimate combination of these materials. Hume‟s method was therefore to show that

“Every idea, simple or complex must be tested by comparison with the impression from which it is supposed to be derived. If in this comparison, it is found there is something in the ideas that is not in the impression, such extra belief must be regarded as the result of arbitrary association”.²⁷

The scope of our ideas are unbounded, Hume claimed that “there are no substantial restraints on the range of ideas we can form. He further explained that “our mind may be able to produce ideas which may look as if they never came through impressions, but on closer examination, we discover this power of the mind to form complex ideas are nothing but the faculty of compounding, transposing, augmenting or diminishing the materials afforded us by the senses and experience”.²⁸ It thus became clear here that Hume‟s position is that even when the mind produces complex ideas, these ideas, though complex are not beyond impressions. When we carefully examine at the scope of our ideas, we will observe that all the ideas we have are derived from the materials supplied by the senses. For instance, he held that when we think of a golden mountain, we only join two consistent ideas, that is, gold and mountain. The role the mind plays here was therefore to join these ideas which of course came through impressions or more lively ones, this boiled down to Hume‟s position that all our ideas are therefore copies of our impressions or more lively ones. This also is known as “copy principle”. The implication of this is that it is the work of the imagination to join two ideas which we originally have through impression of mountain and a metal of gold, of a horse and wings to give us golden mountain or a flying horse. It is Hume‟s claims

85 that when this line of thought is considered, one may likely conclude that “there are no substantial restraints on the range of ideas we can form”.²⁹

Hume went ahead to explain further; “nothing at first view, may seem unbounded than the thought of man, which not only escapes all human power and authority, but is not even restrained within the limits of nature and reality. To form monsters and join incongruous shapes and appearances costs the imagination no more trouble than to conceive the most natural and familiar objects” ³⁰

The content of the mind are therefore impressions and ideas of which he further divided impressions into „sensation‟ and „reflection‟, sensation he said, arises in the soul originally, from unknown causes. Reflection is derived in great measure from our ideas in the following order. An impression first strikes upon the senses and makes us perceive heat or cold, thirst or hunger, pleasure or pain, of some kind or other of this impression, there is a copy taken by the mind which remains after impression ceases; and this Hume referred to as “idea”.

This idea of pleasure or pain, when it returns upon the soul, produces the new impression of desire and aversion, hope or fear, which may properly be called impression of reflection.

These again are copied by the memory and imagination, and because ideas, which in their turn give rise to other impressions and ideas. This happens in such a way that impressions of reflection are not only antecedent to their correspondent ideas, but posteriori to those of sensation and derived from them.

In order to substantiate his claim about the origin of ideas and that there can be no idea without an impression; Hume argued, “a blind man can form no notion of color, a deaf man of sounds. Restore either of them that sense, in which he is deficient; by opening this new inlet for his sensations, and he finds no difficulty in conceiving these objects.”³¹

86 This line of thought as Hume observed is compatible with the realities of life. A person who was born blind can never have an idea of colour. A born deaf man cannot know what a sound is. Those were some of the practical examples to show that without an impression, there can be no ideas. Hume then maintained that the understanding of the origin of ideas will help us to “render every dispute equally intelligible, and banish all that jargon, which has so long taken possession of metaphysical reasoning and drawn disgrace upon them”.³² Hume thus made a recommendation “when we entertain, therefore, any suspicion, that a philosophical term is employed without any meaning or idea, we need but enquire, from what impression is that supposed idea derived? And if it be impossible to assign any, this will serve to confirm our suspicion”.³³

Idea must be derived from an impression for it to have meaning, Hume concluded. It is based on this understanding that Hume subjected metaphysical realities like God, substance, self-etc. to test. Observing that all our ideas are derived from impression, the question now becomes; how can we explain what we normally call thinking or how can we explain how ideas group themselves in our minds. This will lead us to Hume‟s discussion on the association of ideas.