Hume- the unknown

“It is readily allowed, that other beings may possess many sense of which we can have no conception; because the ideas of them have never been introduced to us…” (Pt. II) Again Hume is explaining the boundaries of thought and sensation. When he puts it, as he has done above, I think it is easier to understand and agree with. For example, if you went over to another country, say Australia, would you know how to hunt for your food? Of course not, because here in America, we do not hunt for our own food, we simply go out to the grocery store and buy it. And so the reason we do not posses these senses, are because we have never had to endure killing our own meals, so we therefore have no knowledge about it, if at one point we did want to attempt it, or even tried. Another good example is one that Hume emphasizes. If a man be brought up with no respect and manners, then you can not expect him to behave his manners at a dinner table, they do not exist in his eyes. This man sees no wrong in say- smacking his lips, or talking with food in his mouth, or wiping his face on his shirt; he was never introduced to the ideas that this is improper and so he feels no sensation to want to change it, or fix it.