A Treatise of Human Nature · Chapter
Section V: Of the Impressions of the Senses and Memory explained
Hume explores the nature of impressions from the senses and memory, distinguishing them from imagination by their superior force and vivacity.
What happens
Hume explores the nature of impressions from the senses and memory, distinguishing them from imagination by their superior force and vivacity. He argues that belief is essentially the liveliness of perceptions, and that custom and habit can make imagined ideas feel like memories.
Free preview opens on this chapter — companions, themes, and character notes appear beside the text.
Narrative arc
Story tension across the book — this chapter sits in Rising action.
- Setup
- Escalation
- Breaking point
- Aftermath
- Closing
In Part II, the dramatic climax occurs when Hume systematically dismantles the direct, simple origin of love a…
Full beat labels and climax notes unlock in the reader.
Follow the arc while readingThemes in this chapter
- Empiricism and the Primacy of Impressions
Hume asserts that all simple ideas derive from impressions, and that memory and imagination both borrow from them.
- Custom and General Rules
Custom and habit can infuse ideas with force and vivacity, making fictions appear as memories, as in the case of liars.
Characters to notice
- David Hume
Hume analyzes the distinction between memory and imagination, emphasizing the role of vivacity in belief.
Key passages
“As to those impressions, which arise from the senses, their ultimate cause is, in my opinion, perfectly inexplicable by human reason...”
The ultimate cause of sensory impressions is beyond human reason; we cannot know if they come from objects, the mind, or God.
Hume expresses skepticism about the external world's causes.
“Since therefore the memory, is known, neither by the order of its complex ideas, nor the nature of its simple ones; it follows, that the difference betwixt it and the imagination lies in its superior force and vivacity.”
Memory is distinguished from imagination not by content or arrangement but by the greater liveliness of its ideas.
Key distinction between memory and imagination.
“This is noted in the case of liars; who by the frequent repetition of their lies, come at last to believe and remember them, as realities; custom and habit having in this case, as in many others, the same influence on the mind as nature...”
Liars eventually believe their own lies due to repetition, showing that custom can mimic natural memory.
Custom and habit can affect belief.
