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Notes union I have projected betwixt the learned and conversible worlds. They may, perhaps, meet with
more complaisance from their usual followers than from men of learning; but they cannot reasonably
expect so sincere an affection: and, I hope, they will never be guilty of so wrong a choice, as to
sacrifice the substance to the shadow.
David Hume was one of the most influential philosophers of modern times. Hume argued that
man gains knowledge through experience and that we should be skeptical of all other knowledge.
Hume analyzed various aspects of life, but was probably best recognized for his theory of causality.
Hume set up criteria for determining cause and effect. These criteria explained his skepticism
about causality and why he came to the conclusion that humans were not capable of discovering
truth.
In order to fully understand Hume’s analysis of causality, we must first understand the importance
he placed on the senses. Hume is skeptical of all that is not in some way connected to our senses.
Hume separated human perceptions into two distinct categories: impressions and ideas. Impressions
include sensations and emotions. They are original and more forceful and lively than ideas. They
are what we see, hear, feel, love or hate. Ideas are copies or reflections of impressions and are less
lively than the original impression. For example, if I place my hand on a hot pan and feel the heat,
I have an impression. Later, when I go over the experience in my thoughts, I may recall the heat,
I may remember the burning pain, but I cannot truly experience the sensation again. That reflection
upon my experience is an idea. Hume also believed that there are simple and complex impressions
and ideas. The impression of the color red, for example, is simple. Whereas a red cup can be
separated into parts and is therefore is complex. Simple and complex ideas are always derived
from simple impressions. Hume thought that because of this, there are no innate ideas, and that all
ideas must come from experience, and therefore relies on our senses. If humans were to have no
senses they would continue Reading This Essay
• Hume concludes that cause is “an object precedent and contiguous to another, and so united
with it in the imagination, that the idea of one determines the mind to form the idea of the
other, and the impression of the one to form a more lively idea of the other.”
David Hume’s views on aesthetic theory and the philosophy of art are to be found in his work on
moral theory and in several essays. Although there is a tendency to emphasize the two essays
devoted to art, “Of the Standard of Taste” and “Of Tragedy,” his views on art and aesthetic
judgment are intimately connected to his moral philosophy and theories of human thought and
emotion. His theory of taste and beauty is not entirely original, but his arguments generally
display the keen analysis typical of his best work. Hume’s archaic terminology is occasionally an
obstacle to appreciating his analysis, inviting conflicting readings of his position.
20.3 Beauty and Taste in Hume’s Moral Theory

Subjectivism
Hume proposes that feeling, not thought, informs us that an object is beautiful or ugly, or that an
action exhibits virtue or vice: “The very feeling constitutes our praise or admiration” (T, 471). The
feeling or sentiment is itself an aesthetic or moral discrimination. It is prior to, and the basis of,
any subsequent expression of praise or admiration. The sentiment is the beauty of the object and
it is the virtue of desirable human action. Sentiment is the sole source of values governing human
activity. Taste is a “productive faculty, and gilding or staining all natural objects with the colours,
borrowed from internal sentiment, raises, in a manner, a new creation.” That new creation is
“beauty and deformity, virtue and vice” (EPM, 294). However, the sentiment is calm rather than
violent, so an unphilosophical perspective treats it as a property “of the object” (S, 218).
This moral and aesthetic subjectivism attracts Hume for the same reason that it attracts Hutcheson.
The appeal to sentiment offers a middle position between the two prevailing theories within

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