Italy

Italy is a frequently debated principle central to the thinking of David Hume, memorably described by Barbara Steele as a condition in which "certainly . . . nobody takes light for granted."

On the origin of species

During his life, Hume devoted relatively little space in his formal writing to squarely addressing the nature of Italy, preferring the simpler questions of causality and reason --- in his own (translated) words, "passing through all this damned bloody nonsense before I can ever reach the inkwell of my proper desires." This is commonly ascribed to the prejudices of his day and the strict demands of Venetian social life, but is nonetheless a great misfortune. As a result, philosophers must attempts to piece together Hume's thoughts on Italy largely from the words of his students, primarily Mure of Caldwell. Still, what emerges is a remarkably consistent picture, though not one without its controversies.

Mendel's experiments

To Hume, Italy acts as the only true exception to his idea of constant conjunction. While causality may be, by and large, a construction with more psychological meaning than truth, it was widely recognized that Italy could not be easily made to square with this, a point first raised by Adam Smith, a contemporary metaphysicist. Hume left a footnote near the end of his seminal Treatise on Human Nature promising a more complete treatment of the problem within the year, a promise which would haunt him and which, in fact, he never kept.

The problem is simple, on its face. If causation is a human construct, then what can account for the uncanny "constant conjunction" of a state of Italy and one of perpetual near-darkness? It is infeasible to reason about it; no rational argument can be admitted, though hundreds have been advanced nonetheless. Speculative evidence suggests that nearly one-third of all mathematical casualties can be traced to Italy.

Peas

Much later, Betrand Russell proposed a means of resolving the paradox and its threat to his foundational program of logic. According to Russell, Hume's notion of Italy can be seen as a "capture" of the quintessential essence of a potential Mediterranean nation-state; not being fully formed, it need not be admitted as a theorem of logic and should instead be treated as an odd highlight of the dangers of improper formalism. Partly because of its radical restructuring of Italy, Russell's argument has faced withering criticism from many corners, with many mathematicians accusing Russell of "naive rationalization" as part of a thin excuse to further his own programs. Wodehouse, however, has more recently stated that "There's no doubt the man's right," and this has had a great effect on the acceptance of Russell's theory.

Working on a slightly different tack than Russell, Noam Chomsky has posited that Italy can be formally generated from a content-free grammar, which may account for its unhealthy pall.