Terms in this set 30 many philosophers think they possess a self 299. The strongest statement of this view is to be found in terence penelhums hume on personal identity. Hume s positive theory of personal identity 151 various causes which produce these passions. From hume to derrida find, read and cite all the research you need on researchgate. It seems even more striking that hume s account of self in books 2 and 3 of the treatise has less scope for distinguishing persons from human.
These differ in the degrees of force and liveliness with which they. Ebook or pdf edited book email encyclopedia article govt. Hume delivers his account of personal identity in treatise 1. The strongest statement of this view is to be found in terence penelhums hume on personal. Personal identity stanford encyclopedia of philosophy. This textbased pdf or ebook was created from the html version of this book and is part of the portable library of liberty. In what follows i will argue that humes unpopularity is partly due to the fact that the theory is at odds with how we normally view identity, and partly due to the ambiguity of. Humes view of what constitutes personal identity rests heavily upon his preceding theories concerning the nature of ideas and causation. For, he thought, when we encounter several different things existing in succession and differing gradually, one from the next, this resemblance is the cause of the confusion and mistake, and makes us substitute the notion of identity.
David hume on personal identity a treatise concerning human nature 1739. Hume s account of personal identity does not satisfy philosophers dreams about perfect identity. Rightly or wrongly, i take the view, with hume, that ones own identity. A dialogue by derek parfit and godfrey vesey pair this with your analysis on momento. The objects of the mind vary along a single dimension of force and vivacity. Memory is essential to personal identity, as it is memory which allows us the impression of a continuity of perceptions, and so in turn, the idea of cause and effect. For my part, when i enter most intimately into what i call myself, i always. David hume, a treatise of human nature by david hume. Nov 02, 2015 hume s theory of personal identity is developed in response to lockes account of personal identity. One of the problems with this discussion, that penelhum also remarks upon hume on personal identity, pp. For my part, when i enter most intimately into what i call myself, i always stumble on some particular perception or other, of heat or cold, light or shade, love or hatred, pain or pleasure. In the third paralogism, immanuel kant either addresses directly or gives hints of his views on personal identity, on the moral implications of such identity, and on the problem of other minds. To understand humes account of personal identity one must, as hume says, take the.
Distinction between human beings and persons we need to clarify what we mean by the term person. This idea can be formulated as the following argument. Apr 23, 2012 hume s view of what constitutes personal identity rests heavily upon his preceding theories concerning the nature of ideas and causation. What is the mind, self, or person to which identity and simplicity are attributed. Discussion of the views hume put forward on personal identity in the.
Treatise generally proceeds on the assumption that it was his object to justify ascriptions of. This act of the mind has never yet been explaind by. Locke and hume on personal identity locke and hume both discuss the idea of personal identity in connection with certain general claims about the very idea of identity in a more general sense and i am going to begin, prior to discussing personal identity in particular, with a comparison of their specific treatments of the general idea of identity. The treatment of personal identity in humes treatise displays a shift that is both interesting as an object lesson in the weakness of a particular sort of empirical project, and important for what it teaches about investigating moral life. Humes thoughts about personal identity try to first trace and consecutively explain psychological processes such as beliefs, sentiments, etc. At the opening of the treatise, ideas and impressions are distinguished by their degrees of vivacity. Since he had ceased to believe this by the time that he wrote the appendix, it might be a good thing to mention two relations which have a strong. These are the sources and citations used to research hume personal identity. And here tis evident, the same method of reasoning must be continud. The perception of self is a subjective interpretation of reality and is necessarily colored by the subjects own preconceived notions.
Turning now to humes theory of personal identity, we begin by noting that it is an outgrowth of his overall epistemology. This chapter examines how the argument may fit into kants general account of the paralogistic reasoning of rational psychology. It is a widely held view among philosophers that humes doctrine of personal identity is seriously mistaken, that he makes claims about the existence and nature of personal identity that are clearly false. Rethinking humes second thoughts about personal identity may. The origin of our ideas all the perceptions of the human mind fall into two distinct kinds, which i shall call impressions and ideas. This chapter begins with a close analysis of the relevant sections in book i of the treatise of human nature and humes famous second thoughts on identity in the appendix to book iii. Hume, belief and personal identity justin broackes semantic scholar. The strongest sensation, the most violent passion, say they, instead of. David hume, true to his extreme skepticism, rejects the notion of identity over time. It seems even more striking that humes account of self in books 2 and 3 of the treatise has less scope for distinguishing persons from human. Hume on identity and personal identity 1979 australasian journal of philosophy.
Yet it is striking that hume does not emphasize lockes distinction between persons and human beings. In this paper i will summarize my examination of the first two topic areas only. Humes account of personal identity does not satisfy philosophers dreams about perfect identity. The most important preceding ideas to take into account are the rejection of causality and necessary connection and his strict empiric stance on the basis of knowledge and the only two types of perception being ideas that are reliant on initial impressions. Hume personal identity political science bibliographies. Of personal identity david hume there are some philosophers who imagine we are every moment intimately conscious of what we call our self. Sophiaomni 1 of personal identity david hume there are some philosophers who imagine we are every moment intimately conscious of what we call our self. Humes account is also explained by reference to earlier theories such as those.
We now proceed to explain the nature of personal identity, which has become so great a question in philosophy, especially of late years in england, where all the abstruser sciences are studyd with a peculiar ardour and application. Hume s theory of the self and its identity it is a widely held view among philosophers that hume s doctrine of personal identity is seriously mistaken, that he makes claims about the existence and nature of personal identity that are clearly false. Of personal identity may be conveniently divided into three main subsections. There are some philosophers who imagine we are every moment intimately conscious of what we call our self. Derek parfits bold reply to the duplication problem suggests the possibility of survival without personal identity. Personal identity and the skeptical system of philosophy. In vce philosophy lockes theory of personal identity is a key component of area of study 2, so its important you get a good understanding of the theory. This relation i here consider as applyd in its strictest sense to constant and unchangeable objects.
Locke but once memory has done its work, then our personal identity can be extended even to times forgotten. Ideas, their origin, composition, connection, abstraction, etc. Humes theory of the self and its identity dialogue. Humes theory of the self and its identity it is a widely held view among philosophers that humes doctrine of personal identity is seriously mistaken, that he makes claims about the existence and nature of personal identity that are clearly false. Defending humes theory of personal identity and discarding. Hume in the treatise was proud of his view of belief. Identity may be esteemd a second species of relation. Of personal identity david hume there are some philosophers who imagine we are every moment intimately.
People, we think, go through, persist through, all sorts of. Oct 03, 2006 hume thought that this tendency goes a long way towards explaining mistaken views about personal identity. Introduction the problems of personal identity the persistence question the population question the personalontology question the question of what matters in identity the persistence question. Having rejected the three above theories of personal identity, locke offers his own theory of personal identity. Lockes most thorough discussion of the persistence or diachronic identity of persons can be found in book 2, chapter 27 of the essay of identity and diversity, though locke anticipates this discussion as early as book 1, chapter 4, section 5, and locke refers to persons in other texts, including the second treatise of government. David hume believed that while people may have notions of some unchanging personal characteristics embedded within themselves, people have actually mistaken their perceptions of themselves as the genuine article. Humes positive theory of personal identity 151 various causes which produce these passions. The section concerning personal identity to which humes appendix refersthn 1. Pdf on jan 1, 1992, shaun gallagher and others published gallagher, s. Hume and the belief in personal identity oxford scholarship. The most discussed eighteenthcentury account of personal identity is that of david hume who influenced both sulzer and merian. He believed as we say nowadays, that his analysis of the concept of personal identity was correct.
There are no persons that continue to exist over time. Regarding the issue of personal identity, 1 humes skeptical claim is that we have no experience of a simple, individual impression that we can call the selfwhere the self is the totality of a persons conscious life. A question of humes theory of personal identity the. David hume of personal identity flashcards quizlet.
Personal identity in memento plato philosophy learning. Locke on personal identity stanford encyclopedia of. Hume on personal identity oxford academic journals. Flash cards for arguments and evaluations relating to david hume s of personal identity reading for vce philosophy unit 3, 2014. Pdf hume on personal identity nicko miranda academia. Introduction the problems of personal identity the persistence question the population question the personal ontology question the question of what matters in identity the persistence question. In the previous section, he has rejected the ancient philosophys posit of a mental substance, or soul, in which the perceptions of the mind are said to inhere, and has argued that, in fact, each perception fits the definition of substance as something which may exist by itself. Humes theory as described above seems easy to follow and very appealing, but humes contribution to personal identity is generally not as popular as it deserves. Hume on identity over time and persons phil 20208 je. Person is a forensick term appropriating actions and their merit. It demonstrates that, construed outside the context of this account, kant. Lets say that leonards ability to remember is not impaired and that his memories have been duplicated in another body. Hume rejects a common philosophical view of the self. Pdf based on previous thinkers such as john locke, the scottish philosopher david hume developed his own theory of personal identity, one that is.
Summary david hume of personal identity flashcards. Humes theory of personal identity is developed in response to lockes account of personal identity. This bibliography was generated on cite this for me on tuesday, may 2, 2017. In the appendix to a treatise of human nature, david hume. Hume personal identity political science bibliographies in harvard style. Humes views on personal identity are not difficult to summarize. This paper considers humes account of personal identity in his treatise of human nature.
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