Hume's Map of the Mind

David Hume is the philosopher that contemporary philosophers themselves most identify with, and this lecture explains why his ideas remain so compelling. Lee Braver walks through Hume's Inquiry Concerning Human Understanding, a book built around one big argument that unfolds in three phases: preparation, the argument itself, and its consequences. The lecture begins with Hume's foundational distinction between impressions and ideas, separated by their force and vivacity. Every idea, Hume claims, traces back to experience, a principle Braver illustrates with vivid examples like imagining the flavor of a pineapple or building unicorns from familiar parts. From there, Hume divides all knowledge into two types: relations of ideas, which are certain but tell us nothing new, and matters of fact, which are informative but uncertain. The central question emerges with striking clarity: how do we actually know anything about the world? Hume's answer, Braver promises, is very surprising indeed.