Quotation
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“I am confounded with all these questions, and begin to fancy myself in the most deplorable condition imaginable.”
David Hume · Empiricism · Enlightenment · 1739
What does it mean?
The usual reading takes the conclusion of book one as a report that sceptical philosophy, pressed in solitude, produces melancholy, and that nature then loosens the mood by ordinary company. The melancholy does not refute the arguments. It cannot be lived, and philosophy has to return in a milder form. A rival reading treats the page as theatre, or as a collapse that cancels the Treatise; The section follows the arguments about cause, the external world, and the self.
Did David Hume really say this?
The library’s label is Well attested. Hume's own English in the Treatise, book one, part 4, section 7. The melancholy follows intense reflection and is broken, in the same section, by dinner, company, and backgammon. The wording is secure.
Where it comes from
A Treatise of Human Nature I.4.7
Approximate date: 1739.
How to use it
After a night spent re-reading a contract in a flat in Bristol until none of the clauses feel solid, a person is closer to this page than to a triumph of clever doubt. Hume's next move is ordinary: a meal, a game, friends, and only then a philosophy that knows it cannot govern every hour. The contract may still be unfair; The section is about the inquirer's condition; It is a poor excuse for signing unread.
A mindset reading
The deplorable condition is not a badge he wants worn every day. It is what happens when reflection is shut up with itself. Nature's cure in the passage is social and bodily, and he is unembarrassed; Quoting the melancholy and omitting the cure produces a Hume who only despairs; Omitting the melancholy produces a Hume who was never troubled; The section contains both movements.
Understand the philosophy
The key term, developed more clearly in the Enquiry, is mitigated scepticism: a philosophy that remembers these doubts and does not try to live at their pitch. Section 7 describes the spleen, the wish to burn the papers, and the return of curiosity. The English is his. The page matters because the scepticism is shown as an episode with a sequel, not as a single sneer.
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FAQ
What does it mean?
The usual reading takes the conclusion of book one as a report that sceptical philosophy, pressed in solitude, produces melancholy, and that nature then loosens the mood by ordinary company. The melancholy does not refute the arguments. It cannot be lived, and philosophy has to return in a milder form. A rival reading treats the page as theatre, or as a collapse that cancels the Treatise; The section follows the arguments about cause, the external world, and the self.
Did David Hume really say this?
Well attested. Hume's own English in the Treatise, book one, part 4, section 7. The melancholy follows intense reflection and is broken, in the same section, by dinner, company, and backgammon. The wording is secure.
Which work is it in?
A Treatise of Human Nature I.4.7 Approximate date: 1739.