ABSTRACT

This chapter concludes the examination of Hume’s solution to the paradox of art and negative emotions, by looking closely at the detail of his conversion principle, and its application to the pleasure that we take in tragic drama. Three questions are considered, namely which of the two passions predominates in the mixture, what the conversion process itself involves, and what becomes of the subordinate passion at the end of that process. In the first place, it is suggested that the predominant passion is probably the more forceful of the two, and that the subordinate passion is most likely destroyed at the end of the process. In the second place, however, it is acknowledged that the evidence for these claims is relatively weak, and that it is likely Hume himself did not have clear answers to these questions in his own mind. In the course of the discussion, Alex Neill’s suggestion that there is for Hume a significant distinction between ‘passions’ and ‘emotions’ is undermined.