6 Mar 2009

Research Directory for Hume's Treatise [with special relevance for Deleuzean Research]


Research Directory for Hume's Treatise
[with special relevance for Deleuzean Research]

Sense Perceptions and ideas are both qualitatively the Same; for they are both mental perceptions. But they are quantitatively different, because sense-impressions have more force or violence.

Every simple idea has a resembling simple impression; and to every simple impression corresponds an idea.

Ideas originate in impressions.
There are no innate ideas.

Impressions of Reflection.

Memory repeats impressions.


Memory is more vivid than imagination.

Memory's main job is to preserve the order and position of impressions.

Imagination, unlike memory, is at liberty to change order and position of impressions.
Unification, connection, association of ideas.

Mind can only conceive quantities or qualities while also conceiving precise degrees

Differing objects may be distinguished and separated.

Abstract Ideas are Tendencies of Associating particular ideas.

Mind's Magic, Mystery, Unknown:

What holds between objects holds between the ideas for them. This is the foundation of all knowledge.

Moments must be contiguous. None are co-existent.

Whatever the mind clearly conceives includes the idea of possible existence.

We obtain the notion of time only by means of a succession of ideas and impressions.

We perceive motion when something moves faster than our ability to have successive impressions of it.

We can only perceive time if there are changing objects giving a changing sequence of impressions.

Notion of time is not from an impression independent of that succession which gives us that idea of time.

Mathematical points: indivisible points of perception.

Neither a cause nor an effect exhibits some quality indicating its causal relation to the other.


Our knowledge of causal necessity is a posteriori.

Causal Chains terminate in a sense-impression.

We believe immediate sensation. This is the foundation for all judgment.

AB, AB, AB, A... constant conjunction leads to causal inference.

Larvality, non-predetermination of experience, unpredictability of experiential alteration, analogical transference.

Imagination associates resembling causal pairings, contraction, associative passive synthesis.

Words cause mental inferences because we perceive them just like other conjoined impressions.

A belief is a lively idea associated with a present impression.

Present impressions communicate their force and vivacity to the ideas they evoke.

Probable reasoning is a species of sensation.

Unconscious workings of passive association and belief.

We recall not just past experiences but also the mental states we had while undergoing those experiences.

Our memories form systems we call "reality."

The future is a habitual projection of the past.

Continuous correspondence of variation between cause and effect (for example mass and gravity).

Counter-evidence does not subtract from the majority conclusion's vibrancy, although it does add to its competing conclusion.

Repetition produces nothing new in the objects repeated.

Causal necessity comes-about from an internal impression of repetition.

Mens momentanea.



Hume's Examples:

New Jerusalem's gold walls and ruby streets: we have some complex ideas that never had impressions, and also we have complex impressions that do not come to be copied in ideas.

Red imagined in the dark vs. sun hitting our eyes. Difference between ideas and sense-impressions is quantitative.

Teach child scarlet by showing it. Ideas begin in sense-impressions.

Cannot form idea of pineapple's taste if we have not yet tried one. Ideas begin in sense-impressions.

Winged horses, fiery dragons, and monstrous giants. The imagination, unlike memory, is at liberty to change the order and position of impressions.

White Globe. The mind distinguishes object's features not because our ideas are abstract but because we have divergent tendencies of association.

The idea for a ten-thousandth part of a grain of sand is no less of an idea than the idea for one grain of sand.

Ink spot. Our sense-impressions are not infinitely divisible. There are minima of perception.

The smallest atom of the animal spirits of an insect a thousand times less than a mite. We can form ideas of anything no matter how small.

19 men exist, 20 men exist. But if both are infinitely divisible, then both have equal parts. Argument against infinite divisibility.

Year 1737 cannot occur with the present year 1738. Moments must be contiguous. None are co-existent.

Cannot conceive a mountain without a valley, but can conceive a golden mountain. Whatever the mind clearly conceives includes the idea of possible existence.

See something. Close our eyes. We have an internal impression of extension.

Man sleeping does not sense time, because he has not succession of impressions or ideas. We obtain the notion of time only by means of a succession of ideas and impressions.

Spinning red-hot coal makes a circle. We perceive motion when something moves faster than our ability to have successive impressions of it.

Five notes on a flute give us as well the impression of time but not through a sixth impression. Notion of time is not from an impression independent of that succession which gives us that idea of time.

The room that collapses on itself. Voids must exist.

Man floating in the air has no sense of extension because he has no perception of different extensive parts.

Illuminated things in a dark room. The darkness between itself does not give us an impression of extension.

Brain dissection shows animal spirits go to where one idea is, but accidentally excite the nearby ones as well.

Object same at five and six o'clock. We think that there are enduring unchanging object because many other impressions interposed between similar recurrences.

Caesar killed at senate: nobody recently has seen it, but we all believe it, on account of a regressive causal chain that terminates in the sense impressions of those who witnessed the event.

Two men experience an event long ago. One tries to get the other to recall. He tells details, but the other only imagines this details. As soon as one detail triggers the memory, the ideas of the event become vivid. For, ideas in the memory or more vivid than those in the imagination.

Painter has only faint memories of a certain mood, so he finds a friend who has that mood, so he may capture and portray that feeling. Distant memories become fainter.

Liars believe their own lies. Imagined ideas may obtain the force of memories, if they are colorful enough.

Heat constantly conjoined to flame. AB, AB, AB, A... constant conjunction leads to causal inference.

We believe a history book more than a romance; for, we believe the history events are real, which make them more real and lively in our minds.

Picture of a friend. Present impressions communicate their force and vivacity to the ideas they evoke.

Catholic sensible rituals and items. Present impressions communicate their force and vivacity to the ideas they evoke.

Coming home, the more the things resemble our home, the stronger their evocation and vivification of the idea of home.

Saint relics. Because they have more potent mental evocations on account of their being a part of a shorter chain of causation, they invoke stronger beliefs.

Man stops at river. Unconscious habits of association influence our beliefs.

Poets call to mind certain mythical locales by first recalling ones they do know.

Pilgrims go to Holy Land and Mecca to vivify ideas of Biblical events.

Seeing ocean evokes more magnificence.

Amputated person goes on thinking has arm or leg after surgery, because he has developed habit of perceiving it.

We find the conversation of liars to be unsatisfying, because what they say does not evoke our beliefs and hence leaves no impression on our minds.

Artists, poets, tragedians evoke images already strong in our minds to obtain the force of truth.

Dice. We conclude different probabilities on account of the combination of vivacities of equal chances. So a 3 out of 10 chance is more likely than a 1 out of 10 chance, because the force of association to the three 1/10's combines to a greater force than for just the single tenth.

Peasant thinks clocks just break-down. The artizan knows the hidden cause. Philosophers induce that nothing is pure chance, and there is always a secret cause.

20 ships set-sail, 19 return. Each repetition is a pencil tally. The more tallies, the more our tendency to associate it.

Gravity: variations in mass are continuously variable with their gravitational consequence.

Man desires 1000 pounds. That is a thousand times the passion of one pound. Passions correspond to component vibrancies of association.

Drunkard sees friend die of drink. He is affected for a little while, but soon it wears off.

The fidelity of printers and copyists preserves causal inferences so that they do not wear out from copy to copy.

Conversation with Irishmen and Frenchmen is pleasant despite any prejudices we might have.

Drunkard who drinks red wine will also drink white if no red, and one who eats peaches and pears will eat melons if no preferred fruit. We analogically transfer the force of associations.

Man in hanging cage has divergent tendencies of association, so he is afraid even though he knows rationally that he is safe.

Subtle insults less insulting because less vibrant, more ambiguous, which divides vivacity.

Crime more forgiving when evidence is ambiguous, because less vibrant.




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