Of the Origin of Ideas
"Every one will readily allow, that there is a considerable difference between the perceptions of the mind, when a man feels the pain of excessive heat, or pleasure of moderate warmth, and when he afterwards recalls to his memory this sensation,or anticipates it by his imagination. These faculties may mimic is copy the perception if the senses; but they never can entirely reach the force and vivacity of the original sentiment."(page 9)
In this I believe that Hume is saying that when something happens we can always recall it however the memory or thought is not equal to the day it happened. For example I can recall the when I was four years old I fell at my friends house and broke my arm in two places, I can recall how I fell and I remember screaming and crying as a sit on the table and my mom and her friend around me trying to comforter me. However after 14 years I can not remember the pain I don't recall how it hurt. But I know it was horrible pain I can remember everything else but not the pain.
Hume is saying here that things happen and we can always recall them and remember them but the memory will never have the effect that the real event had on the person. As time goes by the memory fades a little bit all though you can always recall it. Because it is a copy of what happened and over time the copy has become faded and old that we can no longer see or remember all the details.
5 comments:
Hume thinks that we can never feel the same thing twice. We can recall that we were hot, cold, upset, happy, but we cannot reach that feeling. Memory does fade and you might not feel the heat you felt when you burnt yourself as you are recalling it, but don't you feel it again once you burn yourself again? Is Hume saying that no feelings are the same even if the same event happens to you?
i think it depends on the severity of the event. For instance something that was something that was so earth shattering that your life changed drastically I believe you could remember pretty vividly. But also as more time passes I do think that some of the emotion fades.
For Kimberly's comment i think that she made a good point. We can recall the way something felt and we can have the same feeling that we once did. Iam not sure if Hume is saying that no feelings are the same even if the same event happens to you twice. I mean if you are sad cause your friend is sick, and then you become some because you read about a person who is sick and you feel sadness. Do you feel the same sadness for the person you do know as you do for your friend? I think that if your dog dies and you are upset and then you heard of a dog that has passed on you dont feel the same sadness as you did for your dog. I mean you feel sad but it not the same sadness you had for your dog. I dont know did i make the question worse or better?
For Rachel's comment I dont understand what you are saying in the first part of thecomment. however in the second part I agree that you can remember things vividly but the emotion fades.
I agree with Rachel. If something drastically happens and changes your life i think you can definitely remember it vividly. You might not be able to remember every little detail but i think you can closely remember almost everything or definitely remember more details than if it was not as drastic.
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