The "Mirror of Nature" and of Others in David Hume

The article interprets Hume's theory of association of ideas, primarily with respect to resemblance as one of the principles of association and to general ideas (or concepts) as a principal consequence of association. On the basis of this interpretation, the author argues that Hume's conception of resemblance and general terms is not conditioned by the acceptance of the so- called "myth of the given". As a result of accepting this assumption, however, new questions arise; in particular, why is it that just those general concepts arise that in fact arise and how are they intersubjectively shared. These questions lead to the need to supplement the image of the mind as a "mirror of nature" from the beginning of Hume's A Treatise of Human Nature, book I, with the image of the mind as a "mirror of others" from book II.