ABSTRACT
If the conclusions of our previous chapter are correct, then Hume’s three most important claims from the Treatise that
(NC) We have no idea that is an idea of a necessary connection , (EW) We have no idea that is an idea of the external world , and (SSE) We have no idea that is an idea of a single subject of experience
persisting through time ,
are all accepted on the grounds that an analysis of the idea of representational content shows that the controversial content of the ideas in question is impossible. According to Hume, we simply cannot form representations of any such things. We represent complex states of affairs by forming complex pictures, and we cannot form complex pictures of necessary connections, the external world, or the self.
