ABSTRACT
This chapter examines another development in the text which is, if anything, more important for following the main lines of David Hume’s thought: his use of inductive skepticism to elevate the standing of the imagination. More perplexing Hume seems to suggest that perceptions generated by the imagination only rarely acquire a vivacity or force amounting to belief. Imagination supplies the idea of the unobserved cause upon the occurrence of an experienced effect in memory or sense. The plain man’s belief in the continued and distinct existence of what he perceives is also grounded in the imagination, as are the beliefs that arise from philosophical reflection. Far from being exceptional, the vivification of perceptions of the imagination to the status of beliefs is a common feature of experiences involved in daily life, scientific inquiry, and philosophical reflection. The imagination underlies all causal reasoning, at the same time, it can generate beliefs in opposition to causal reasoning.
