A Treatise of Human Nature · Chapter
Section V: Of the Influence of These Relations on Pride and Humility explained
Hume applies his principles of association to explain the causes of pride and humility.
What happens
Hume applies his principles of association to explain the causes of pride and humility. He argues that these passions arise from a double relation: the cause must produce a separate impression (pleasure for pride, pain for humility) and be related to self, the object of the passion. This double relation facilitates an easy transition of impressions and ideas, determining the specific causes of pride and humility. He also emphasizes that pride requires an external cause and is not produced immediately by nature.
Themes in this chapter
Association of Ideas
Hume applies the principles of association to explain the transition between impressions and ideas in the production of pride and humility.
Passions and the Self
The chapter explores how pride and humility are directed at the self, and how external objects related to self influence these passions.
Characters to notice
- David Hume
Author and narrator, presenting his theory of pride and humility.
Key passages
“Accordingly we find, that a beautiful house, belonging to ourselves, produces pride; and that the same house, still belonging to ourselves, produces humility, when by any accident its beauty is changed into deformity, and thereby the sensation of pleasure, which corresponded to pride, is transformed into pain, which is related to humility.”
For example, a beautiful house that we own makes us proud, but if that same house becomes ugly, it makes us humble, because the pleasure that caused pride turns into pain, which leads to humility.
Illustrates the double relation of impressions and ideas in the context of pride and humility.