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Part III - Vulgar fiction and philosophical fallacy

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 September 2009

Wayne Waxman
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Summary

As long as we confine our speculations to the appearances of objects to our senses, without entering into disquisitions concerning their real nature and operations, we are safe from all difficulties.

TApp638

Nothing is more dangerous to reason than the flights of the imagination, and nothing has been the occasion of more mistakes among philosophers. Men of bright fancies may in this respect be compar'd to those angels, whom the scripture represents as covering their eyes with their wings.

T267

Sometimes it is prudent to depart from a philosopher's own order of exposition and follow a different path. The fourth part of Treatise I seems such a case. In it, the topics of skepticism and identity are closely intertwined; and, while this is fully in keeping with Hume's design, the true nature and structure of his theory of identity tend to be obscured as a result. The interests of clarity and comprehension are, in my view, better served by separating the two topics so as not to mirror, but to complement, Hume's own mode of exposition.

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Hume's Theory of Consciousness , pp. 201 - 202
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 1994

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