"All our ideas derived from the senses are confusedly false and illusive; and cannot therefore be supposed to have place in a supreme intelligence: and as the ideas of internal sentiment, added to those of the external senses, compose the whole furniture of human understanding, we may conclude, that none of the materials of thought are in any respect similar in the human and in the divine intelligence"
— Hume, David (1711-1776)
Author
Work Title
Date
1779
Metaphor
"All our ideas derived from the senses are confusedly false and illusive; and cannot therefore be supposed to have place in a supreme intelligence: and as the ideas of internal sentiment, added to those of the external senses, compose the whole furniture of human understanding, we may conclude, that none of the materials of thought are in any respect similar in the human and in the divine intelligence"
Metaphor in Context
All the sentiments of the human mind, gratitude, resentment, love, friendship, approbation, blame, pity, emulation, envy, have a plain reference to the state and situation of man, and are calculated for preserving the existence and promoting the activity of such a being in such circumstances. It seems, therefore, unreasonable to transfer such sentiments to a supreme existence, or to suppose him actuated by them; and the phenomena besides of the universe will not support us in such a theory. All our ideas derived from the senses are confusedly false and illusive; and cannot therefore be supposed to have place in a supreme intelligence: and as the ideas of internal sentiment, added to those of the external senses, compose the whole furniture of human understanding, we may conclude, that none of the materials of thought are in any respect similar in the human and in the divine intelligence. Now, as to the manner of thinking; how can we make any comparison between them, or suppose them anywise resembling? Our thought is fluctuating, uncertain, fleeting, successive, and compounded; and were we to remove these circumstances, we absolutely annihilate its essence, and it would in such a case be an abuse of terms to apply to it the name of thought or reason. At least if it appear more pious and respectful (as it really is) still to retain these terms, when we mention the Supreme Being, we ought to acknowledge, that their meaning, in that case, is totally incomprehensible; and that the infirmities of our nature do not permit us to reach any ideas which in the least correspond to the ineffable sublimity of the Divine attributes.
Categories
Provenance
Searching "furniture" and "mind" in Past Masters
Citation
At least 7 entries in ESTC (1779, 1780, 1782, 1793).
See Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion. By David Hume, Esq. ([London?]: [s.n.], 1779). <Link to ESTC>
Searching in Past Masters: The Complete Works and Correspondence of David Hume, ed. Mark C. Rooks (Charlottesville: InteLex Corporation, 1995). [Text of Dialogues is a corrected version of that published in the 1854 Works]
Reading Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion, 2nd ed., ed. Richard H. Popkin (Indianapolis: Hackett, 1998).
See Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion. By David Hume, Esq. ([London?]: [s.n.], 1779). <Link to ESTC>
Searching in Past Masters: The Complete Works and Correspondence of David Hume, ed. Mark C. Rooks (Charlottesville: InteLex Corporation, 1995). [Text of Dialogues is a corrected version of that published in the 1854 Works]
Reading Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion, 2nd ed., ed. Richard H. Popkin (Indianapolis: Hackett, 1998).
Date of Entry
04/16/2006
