A Treatise of Human Nature · Chapter
Section III: Of the Ancient Philosophy explained
Hume criticizes the ancient philosophers' fictions of substance, substantial forms, accidents, and occult qualities, showing how these arise from the imagination's propensity to feign unknown entities to reconcile contradictions in our perc
What happens
Hume criticizes the ancient philosophers' fictions of substance, substantial forms, accidents, and occult qualities, showing how these arise from the imagination's propensity to feign unknown entities to reconcile contradictions in our perceptions. He argues that our idea of identity in objects is a fiction produced by the smooth transition of thought, and that the ancient philosophy's inventions, like sympathy and antipathy, stem from a natural inclination to personify external objects. Hume concludes that true philosophy approaches the sentiments of the vulgar, while false philosophy errs by seeking hidden connections in matter.
Themes in this chapter
Skepticism About the External World
Hume questions the notion of substance and identity, arguing that our belief in a continuous external world is a fiction of the imagination.
Custom and General Rules
Hume explains how custom leads us to infer connections and dependencies, and how general rules of the imagination produce philosophical fictions.
Characters to notice
- David Hume
Author and narrator, analyzing the fictions of ancient philosophy.
Key passages
“The smooth and uninterrupted progress of the thought, being alike in both cases, readily deceives the mind, and makes us ascribe an identity to the changeable succession of connected qualities.”
Because the mind moves smoothly over a series of related qualities, it is easily fooled into thinking that the changing collection is actually one unchanging thing.
Hume explains the psychological mechanism behind our mistaken belief in identity.
“In order to reconcile which contradictions the imagination is apt to feign something unknown and invisible, which it supposes to continue the same under all these variations; and this unintelligible something it calls a substance, or original and first matter.”
To resolve the conflict between our sense of identity and our perception of change, the imagination invents an invisible, unknown entity that remains constant, which we call substance or prime matter.
Hume identifies the origin of the concept of substance as a psychological fiction.
“They need only say, that any phenomenon, which puzzles them, arises from a faculty or an occult quality, and there is an end of all dispute and enquiry upon the matter.”
Philosophers can simply attribute any puzzling phenomenon to a 'faculty' or 'occult quality,' and that ends all further questioning.
Hume criticizes the use of obscure terms as a way to avoid genuine inquiry.