History of Philosophy Workshop: Bridger Ehli (Indiana University Bloomington) "Hume’s Distinctio Rationis"

Abstract: In Treatise 1.1.7, Hume offers an account of rational distinctions. According to a traditional account endorsed by authors such as Suárez and Descartes, these are distinctions between items that cannot exist separately. Such distinctions are in tension with one of the core principles of Hume’s philosophy: the separability principle, according to which distinctness, distinguishability, and separability are mutually entailing. His response to this objection is notoriously opaque. I argue that Hume's discussion of rational distinction is a skeptical achievement: it is offered as a diagnosis of an illusion that leads us to suppose that distinctions between inseparable items are possible.