What Hume calls the ‘association of ideas’ is a fundamental operating ‘principle’ (i.e. mechanism) of the human mind. The principle operates by resemblance, by contiguity, and by causes and effect.

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Association of Ideas

If Descartes is the father of modern philosophy, Hume is the person who gave shape to the contemporary philosophical world. First by querying Descartes' theories about knowledge, and then developing his own modest account of knowledge, and later his theories of ethics and aesthetics.