Pears, David - Hume's System: An Examination of the First Book of his Treatise

The point from which I shall start is a point made in the Preface: Hume's theory of mind is intended to help us towards answers to two distinct questions: 'What ideas may we legitimately have?' and 'What may we legitimately believe?' The first of these two questions is concerned with the origin of our ideas, and the second is concerned with the connections between our ideas and the various ways in which we combine them in thinking, and especially in belief.