Critical Analysis of Humes Passages - Essay Example

To Hume, it is essential to start with philosophical skepticism in observing the ways by which human beings play specific roles in society and such process would then lead to the attainment of the proper objective in rationalizing not merely what each belief is made of but more so the grounds, simple and complex, behind such belief. 

According to Hume in the article, “we may divide all the perceptions of the mind into two classes or species … The less forcible and lively are commonly denominated THOUGHTS or IDEAS … The other species … impression, then, I mean all our more lively perceptions, when we hear, or see, or feel, or love, or hate, or desire, or will.” On the basis of this statement, the ideas and impressions comprising the mental faculty of a man, though possessing significant relation to each other, are distinct among themselves and this working difference is where human belief is conceived. Impressions pertain to sense perceptions that enable the disposition of an individual with emotions or immediate passion whereas ideas constitute ‘faint copies or images’ of impressions within thoughts. Characterized by vividness, impressions are claimed to be more active in the living consciousness compared to ideas. While impressions logically precede ideas, the latter being derived from the former, Hume considers the probability that certain ideas may generate impressions either as reflections or sensations which themselves develop the capacity of formulating ideas in return.

 Since these constituents of the mind may be held in flexible connections as in random order with or separate from each other, such associations vary with respect to mental operations involved. By cause and effect relation, contiguity, or resemblance, a mental behavior manages to create joints between ideas out of which spring human beliefs which serve as a consequence once the manner of associating impressions and ideas is employed with repetition. Beliefs are further classified into two of which one refers to ‘relations of ideas' and the other, ‘matters of fact.’ Through the section “Of the Origin of Ideas”, Hume illustrates stating “Everyone will readily allow, that there is a considerable difference between the perceptions of the mind, when a man feels the pain of excessive heat, or the pleasure of moderate warmth, and when he afterward recalls to his memory this sensation.”

Beliefs regarding matters of fact, hence, determine genuine progress for explicating that no self-evident relation exists when ideas bear apparent distinctions and separability within their number. Connections in beliefs presupposed by cause and effect thus can only be yielded after experiencing cases with similar characteristics that not even inferential validity of previous encounters would do alone to make adequate justifications of these same beliefs.