My project is an examination of the concept of belief and its nature as essentially tied to feeling, as it is presented by the 18th century empiricist David Hume. When the sources and justifications for belief are discussed there is often a tendency to speak of the separate, and often opposing, effects of the rational and the sensitive parts of mental experience. In characterizing belief, therefore, one would expect to find it to be something with the potential to be either rational/cognitive or sensitive/passionate in nature. This kind of understanding of belief is often further accompanied by the idea that beliefs are to be understood as justified and rational to the degree to which they are a product of reason, not sheer sensation. The idea that justified beliefs are the result of cognition and reason without sensation and passion will be challenged in this thesis, as will the understanding of 'rationality' as something best achieved in human thought and action through using reason exclusively and subjecting 'feelings' to it. The Humean concept of sympathy will be introduced as an important part of sensitive belief formation. (Abstract shortened by UMI.).
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