The Opening Sections of the Treatise, As Predetermined by Hume’s Early Doctrine of Belief

Abstract

IN the opening sections of the Treatise there are four main positions for which Hume argues. Three of these are clearly and straightforwardly stated, and are held to throughout the Treatise: (I) that perceptions appear in twofold form, as impressions and as ideas; (2) that perceptions first exist as impressions, and that the ideas are causally dependent upon the impressions; and (3) that every idea is an exact image, replica or copy of the impression which corresponds to it.¹