different from anything I’ve heard up to now.”
“Is there anything in particular that’s missing?”
“Well, to start with, all the philosophers you have talked about are men. And
men seem to live in a world of their own. I am more interested in the real world,
where there are flowers and animals and children that are born and grow up. Your
philosophers are always talking about ‘man’ and ‘humans,’ and now here’s another
treatise on ‘human nature.’ It’s as if this ‘human’ is a middle-aged man. I mean, life
begins with pregnancy and birth, and I’ve heard nothing about diapers or crying
babies so far. And hardly anything about love and friendship.”
“You are right, of course. But Hume was a philosopher who thought in a
different way. More than any other philosopher, he took the everyday world as his
starting point. I even think Hume had a strong feeling for the way children—the new
citizens of the world— experienced life.”
“I’d better listen then.”
“As an empiricist, Hume took it upon himself to clean up all the woolly
concepts and thought constructions that these male philosophers had invented. There
were piles of old wreckage, both written and spoken, from the Middle Ages and the
rationalist philosophy of the seventeenth century. Hume proposed the return to our
spontaneous experience of the world. No philosopher ‘will ever be able to take us
behind the daily experiences or give us rules of conduct that are different from those
we get through reflections on everyday life,’ he said.”
“Sounds promising so far. Can you give any examples?”
“In the time of Hume there was a widespread belief in angels. That is, human
figures with wings. Have you ever seen such a creature, Sophie?”
“No.”
“But you have seen a human figure?”
“Dumb question.”
“You have also seen wings?”
“Of course, but not on a human figure.”
“So, according to Hume, an ‘angel’ is a complex idea. It consists of two
different experiences which are not in fact related, but which nevertheless are
associated in man’s imagination. In other words, it is a false idea which must be
immediately rejected. We must tidy up all our thoughts and ideas, as well as our book
collections, in the same way. For as Hume put it: If we take in our hands any volume
... let us ask, ‘Does it contain any abstract reasoning concerning quantity or number?’
No. ‘Does it contain any experimental reasoning concerning matter of fact and
existence?’ No. Commit it then to the flames, for it can contain nothing but sophistry
and illusion.”
“That was drastic.”
“But the world still exists. More fresh and sharply outlined than ever. Hume
wanted to know how a child experiences the world. Didn’t you say that many of the
philosophers you have heard about lived in their own world, and that you were more
interested in the real world?”
“Something like that.”
“Hume could have said the same thing. But let us follow his train of thought
more closely.”
“I’m with you.”
“Hume begins by establishing that man has two different types of perceptions,
namely impressions and ideas. By ‘impressions’ he means the immediate sensation of
external reality. By ‘ideas’ he means the recollection of such impressions.”