ABSTRACT
In Plato’s Republic Socrates suggests that a philosopher is like a dog. Philosophers are distinguished by their love of wisdom and this characteristic. A dog will distinguish a friendly from a hostile aspect by nothing save his apprehension of the one and his failure to recognise the other, explains Socrates. If Socrates analogy surprises or amuses us, this is because it plays on the difference between two kinds of knowledge. The dog possesses knowledge by acquaintance, which has nothing to do with abstraction, calculation or theorizing. Habit, born of familiarity and association, is more dog-like than god-like. If habit is also a form of knowledge in a more positive and instrumental sense, it is still opposed to the reflective kind of intelligence cultivated by philosophers. According to Spinoza, the mind imagines when it perceives and interprets the images of bodies. The publication of the Ethics, Hume outlined an account of habitual thinking which echoes Spinoza's in many respects.
