David Hume's An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding

In Hume’s “An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding”, he provides his explanation on his theory of the basic science of man. After stating that every thought and feeling man has is a perception, he begins by categorizing the distinctions in his theory which basically involve two categories that intersect each other- impressions vs. ideas and simple vs. complex. Hume then goes on to distinguish the difference between the ideas and impressions. Impressions, in Hume’s rationale, are based off of the senses and mental phenomenon where ideas are shaped by impressions. In the passage on page 11, he argues that everything that human’s think of can be derived from “inner or outward sentiment”, and in this case, using “sentiment” in place of the word

According to Hume overall, all of our ideas and “feeble perceptions” are founded by impressions (Hume). Basically, Hume insists that all ideas can be traced back and associated with the root impression that one first had.
This passage begins with Hume justifying that the mind can conceive anything that we have not previously seen and explains that nothing is beyond what we can think unless there is a complete contradiction such as a square that is circle- “To form monsters, and join incongruous shapes…costs the imagination no more trouble than to conceive the most natural and familiar objects” (Hume). These ideas are explained to be copies of the impressions we have already experienced, and ideas must proceed from our first impressions of an experience (our senses- what we see, feel, hear, desire, ect.). He later explains that resemblance, contiguity of ideas and cause and effect can all be associated with man’s