ABSTRACT
David Hume’s views on abstract ideas do not play some fundamental part in his system as Berkeley’s rather similar views do in his. His improvements on Berkeley’s theory consist in his emphasis of the role played by customary association and of the use of many particular images to illustrate the sort of resemblance required. The relation between the word and the particular idea, left undefined by Berkeley, is defined by Hume as a customary association. The philosopher who, shortly before Hume’s time, had made the most explicit effort to describe an abstract general idea and the process by which form it was Locke. The relation between the word and the particular idea, left undefined by Berkeley, is defined by Hume as a customary association. Berkeley had seen that the general and the indeterminate could not be representatively symbolised, but could be symbolised by a conventional symbol.
