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THOMAS J. BATA LI BRARY
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STUDIES IN INTELLECTUAL HISTORY
General Editor M. A. Stewart
The sceptical realism of David Hume
When we question whether the underlying object is such as it appears,
we grant the fact that it appears, and our doubt does not concern the
appearance itself but the account given of that appearance — and that is a
different thing from questioning the appearance itself,
- Sextus Empiricus, Outlines of Pyrrhonism
If I examine the PTOLOMAIC and COPERNICAN systems, I endeavour
only, by my enquiries, to know the real situation of the planets; that is, in
other words, I endeavour to give them, in my conception, the same
relations, that they bear towards each other in the heavens. To this
operation of the mind, therefore, there seems to be always a real, though
often an unknown standard, in the nature of things; nor is truth or
falsehood variable by the various apprehensions of mankind. Though all
human race should for ever conclude, that the sun moves, and the earth
remains at rest, the sun stirs not an inch from his place for all these
reasonings; and such conclusions are eternally false and erroneous.
- Hume, 'The Sceptic7
We of the Academy are not people who will accept nothing as true. But
we do hold that every true perception has in it an admixture of falsehood
so similar to the truth that we have no certain criterion of judgement and
assent. It follows that we can attain only to a number of probable truths,
which although they cannot be proved as certainties, yet may appear so
clear and convincing that a wise man may well adopt them as a rule of
life.
- Cicero, The Nature of the Gods
We are so much persuaded of the truth of this our Hypothesis, that we
have employ'd one of our Members, a great Virtuoso at Nuremberg, to
make a sort of an Hydraulic Engine, in which a chemical liquor
resembling Blood, is driven through elastic chanels resembling arteries
and veins, by the force of an Embolus like the heart, and wrought by a
pneumatic Machine of the nature of the lungs, with ropes and pullies,
like the nerves, tendons and muscles: And we are persuaded that this
our artificial Man will not only walk, and speak, and perform most of the
outward actions of the animal life, but (being wound up once a week) will
perhaps reason as well as most of your Country Parsons.
- Arbuthnot & Pope, The Memoirs of Martinus Scriblerus
John P. Wright
The sceptical realism
of David Hume
Manchester
University Press
jr
© John P. Wright 1983
Published by Manchester University Press
Oxford Road, Manchester Ml 3 9PL
British Library cataloguing in publication data
Wright, John P.
The sceptical realism of David Hume.
—(Studies in intellectual history)
1. Hume, David 2. Sceptics
I. Title II. Series
171 B1499.54
ISBN 0-7190-0882-4
Photoset by
E.B. Photosetting Ltd, Woodend Avenue, Liverpool 24
Printed in Great Britain by
Biddles Ltd, Guildford, Surrey
Contents
Preface vn
General editor's preface ix
Abbreviations xi
Introduction
Hume's phibsophy of scepticism 10
§1: Justification 11
§2: Truth 20
§3: Belief 27
§4: Conclusion 30
Chapter 2 Scepticism with regard to the senses 38
§5: The senses 40
§6: Reason 48
"ja) Can reason be the source of our belief in body? 49
(b) The premises of Hume's argument for
scepticism 50
(c) How indirect realism is dependent on the
natural belief 55
§7: Imagination 59
(a) The problem 59
(b) The natural propensity to believe in a
continuous unperceived existence 64
(c) The causes which induce us to believe in the
existence of body 68
(d) How we believe in the appearance and
non-appearance of a single object 71
§8: Conclusion 74
vi Contents
(^Chapter 3 J Knowledge and objective scepticism 85
§9: Quantity 91
§10: Space and matter 100
§11: Matter and sensible qualities 107
§12: Conclusion 112
(Chapter 4 ■ Causal scepticism and necessary natural powers 123
§13: The senses and causal scepticism 128
§14: Reason 135
(a) Perceptual distinctions 135
(b) Objective necessary connection 147
§15: Natural judgement of objective connection 150
(a) The principles of our natural judgement 151
(b) The identity of cause and effect 155
§16: Hume's rejection of Newtonian 'active
powers' 161
(a) Hume's dispute with John Stewart 162
(b) Do we know an active cause through human
volition? 164
(c) The cause of order 167
(d) Humean mechanism 171
§17: Conclusion 174
Chapter 5 Hume's science of human nature 187
§18: Experimental method 192
(a) Pronouncements 192
(b) Practice 200
§19: Neurological mechanisms: impressions,
beliefs, and ideas. 209
(a) Impressions 211
(b) Beliefs 214
(c) Ideas 219
§20: Natural judgements 221
(a) The teachings of human nature: Descartes'
theory 222
(b) Hume's adoption of Malebranche's theory of
natural judgement 224
(c) Hume's revisionary conception of human
nature as teacher 226
§21: Conclusion 230
List of works cited 247
Index 257
