Page:Treatise of Human Nature (1888).djvu/719

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A TREATISE OF HUMAN NATURE.

rupted and independent of the incessant revolutions of which we are conscious in ourselves, 191: will places us in the 'world of realities' as opposed to the 'world of ideas' which is the province of demonstration, 414; truth=an agreement either to the real relations of ideas, or to real existence and matter offact, 448.

Reason.

§ 1. Distinctions of, e.g. between figure and body figured, 25, 43; not reason but custom determines us to pass from the impression of one object to the idea or belief of another, 97; opposed to imagination, 108, 268; opposed to experience, 157; three kinds of, knowledge, proofs, and probability, 124; can never give rise to idea of efficacy since (1) it can never give rise to any original idea (cf. 164); (2) as distinguished from experience can never make us conclude that a cause is necessary to every beginning of existence, 157 (cf. 79, 172); of animals, inferred from the resemblance of their actions to man's, 176 (cf. 610); 'is nothing but a wonderful and unintelligible instinct in our souls,' 179; scepticism with regard to, 180 f., can only be cured by carelessness and inattention, 218, 269; informs us of distance or outness, 191; does not distinguish between different kinds of perceptions, 192; neither does nor can ever give us an assurance of the continued and distinct existence of body, 193; reason or reflection in conflict with imagination or instinct, telling us that all our perceptions are interrupted, 215 (cf. 266); opposition between reason and the senses, or rather between arguments from cause and effect, and arguments which convince us of continued and independent existence of body, 231, 266; shows us the impossibility of giving the taste of a fruit local relation to its shape, etc., 238; opposed to imagination: 'we have no choice left but between a false reason and none at all,' 268; is the discovery of truth and falsehood, 458; either compares ideas or infers matters of fact: it is concerned either with relations of objects or matters of fact, 463 (cf. 413); argument from 'pure reason,' opposed to argument from authority, 546; chief ground of superiority of men to beasts, 610 (cf. 176).

§ 2. A. Reason and will, 413 f.; can never be any motive to the will, 414 (cf. 457); can never prevent volition, and 'is and only ought to be the slave of the passions,' 415; a passion cannot be contrary to reason, '’tis not unreasonable to prefer my acknowledged, lesser good to my greater,' 416 (cf. 458); calm desires or passions confused with reason, 417, 437, 536, 583 (v. Passion, § 3).

B. Moral distinctions not derived from reason, 455 f.; reason is 'perfectly inert,' and 'can never be the source of so active a principle as conscience or a sense of morals,' 457, 458; actions can be neither true nor false, contrary or conformable to reason, 458; virtue and vice are neither relations nor matters of fact, they are objects of feeling not of reason, 463-9 (v. Moral, § 1).