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NUNC COCNOSCO EX PARTE THOMAS J. BATA LI BRARY TRENT UNIVERSITY Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2019 with funding from Kahle/Austin Foundation https://archive.org/details/scepticalrealismOOOOwrig 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