“ Complex ideas may, perhaps, be well known by definition, which is nothing but an enumeration of those parts or simple ideas, that compose them. ”
David Hume, An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding (1748). copy citation
| Author | David Hume |
|---|---|
| Source | An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding |
| Topic | complexity simplicity ideas |
| Date | 1748 |
| Language | English |
| Reference | |
| Note | |
| Weblink | http://www.gutenberg.org/files/9662/9662-h/9662-h.htm |
Context
“I have endeavoured10 to explain and prove this proposition, and have expressed my hopes, that, by a proper application of it, men may reach a greater clearness and precision in philosophical reasonings, than what they have hitherto been able to attain. Complex ideas may, perhaps, be well known by definition, which is nothing but an enumeration of those parts or simple ideas, that compose them. But when we have pushed up definitions to the most simple ideas, and find still some ambiguity and obscurity; what resource are we then possessed of? By what invention can we throw light upon these ideas, and render them altogether precise and determinate to our intellectual view?”
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Meaning and analysis
