“ A blind man can form no notion of colours; a deaf man of sounds. ”
David Hume, An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding (1748). copy citation
| Author | David Hume |
|---|---|
| Source | An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding |
| Topic | sound |
| Date | 1748 |
| Language | English |
| Reference | |
| Note | |
| Weblink | http://www.gutenberg.org/files/9662/9662-h/9662-h.htm |
Context
“It will then be incumbent on us, if we would maintain our doctrine, to produce the impression, or lively perception, which corresponds to it.
15. Secondly. If it happen, from a defect of the organ, that a man is not susceptible of any species of sensation, we always find that he is as little susceptible of the correspondent ideas. A blind man can form no notion of colours; a deaf man of sounds. Restore either of them that sense in which he is deficient; by opening this new inlet for his sensations, you also open an inlet for the ideas; and he finds no difficulty in conceiving these objects.”
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