"--(I. p. 331).
But, leaving the question of the proper definition of mind open for the
present, it is further a matter of direct observation, that, when we
take a general survey of all our perceptions or states of consciousness,
they naturally fall into sundry groups or classes. Of these classes, two
are distinguished by Hume as of primary importance. All "perceptions,"
he says, are either "_Impressions_" or "_Ideas_."
Under "impressions" he includes "all our more lively perceptions, when
we hear, see, feel, love, or will;" in other words, "all our sensations,
passions, and emotions, as they make their first appearance in the soul"
(I. p. 15).
"Ideas," on the other hand, are the faint images of impressions in
thinking and reasoning, or of antecedent ideas.
Both impressions and ideas may be either _simple_, when they are
incapable of further analysis, or _complex_, when they may be resolved
into simpler constituents. All simple ideas are exact copies of
impressions; but, in complex ideas, the arrangement of simple
constituents may be different from that of the impressions of which
those simple ideas are copies.
Thus the colours red and blue and the odour of a rose, are simple
impressions; while the ideas of blue, of red, and of rose-odour are
simple copies of these impressions. But a red rose gives us a complex
impression, capable of resolution into the simple impressions of red
colour, rose-scent, and numerous others; and we may have a complex idea,
which is an accurate, though faint, copy of this complex impression.
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