ABSTRACT
The discovery that most of the perceptual beliefs are false is, in the first place, the result of empirical investigations. It is the result of observation of phenomena and experiments concerning them. This discovery also provides one of the central tasks of Hume’s program: the explanation of the origin of these shared falsehoods through the regular principles of the mind that generate them. Given Hume’s inventory of mental faculties are left with only the imagination as the source of this “entirely unreasonable sentiment.” Imagination is, of course, a natural candidate for supplying the content of a false belief. Through the imagination can construct an idea of a hippogriff or a chickopotamus even though no such things exist. This chapter argues that Hume resists such conceptually skeptical arguments for they stand in the way of his general program of describing everyday beliefs and explaining their causal origins.
