ABSTRACT
Hume begins his analysis of the understanding by laying it down that, “All the perceptions of the human mind resolve themselves into two distinct kinds, which the author calls Impressions and Ideas.” Perception is thus the genus of which impressions and ideas are the exhaustive species, differentiated by the superior force and vivacity of the former. These “two species of perception” are further to be divided into simple and complex impressions and ideas. Something of the significance of Hume’s view of resemblance appears when it is noticed that Nominalism, as a theory admitting of several variants, might be described as consisting in part in the contention that the predication of resemblance involves no reference to a quality or character distinct from and common to the entities compared. The question whether space and time, as analysed by Hume, can in any sense be philosophical relations, may now be considered.
