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Single Idea 21307

[filed under theme 16. Persons / D. Continuity of the Self / 2. Mental Continuity / a. Memory is Self ]

Full Idea

Who will affirm, because he has entirely forgot the incidents of past days, that the present self is not the same person with the self of that time? And by that means overturn all the most established notions of personal identity?

Gist of Idea

Who thinks that because you have forgotten an incident you are no longer that person?

Source

David Hume (Treatise of Human Nature [1739], I.IV.6)

Book Ref

Hume,David: 'A Treatise of Human Nature', ed/tr. Selby-Bigge/Nidditch [OUP 1978], p.262

A Reaction

This is a swipe at one of Locke's most controversial claims (especially when applied to incidents of criminal behaviour). Hume says memory constitutes this identity, but Locke's view says it merely reveals identity.

Related Ideas

Idea 12511 If consciousness is interrupted, and we forget our past selves, are we still the same thinking thing? [Locke]

Idea 12514 On Judgement Day, no one will be punished for actions they cannot remember [Locke]

The 21 ideas with the same theme [relationship between the sense of Self and memories]:

22984 Without memory I could not even speak of myself [Augustine]
17216 The poet who forgot his own tragedies was no longer the same man [Spinoza]
5175 Personal identity is my perceptions, but not my memory, as I forget too much [Ayer on Locke]
1363 Locke's theory confusingly tries to unite consciousness and memory [Reid on Locke]
1368 Locke mistakes similarity of a memory to its original event for identity [Reid on Locke]
1373 Identity over time involves remembering actions just as they happened [Locke]
1380 Should we punish people who commit crimes in their sleep? [Locke]
5027 If a person's memories became totally those of the King of China, he would be the King of China [Leibniz]
12942 Memory doesn't make identity; a man who relearned everything would still be the same man [Leibniz]
21313 If consciousness of events makes our identity, then if we have forgotten them we didn't exist then [Butler]
1333 Memory only reveals personal identity, by showing cause and effect [Hume]
1332 We use memory to infer personal actions we have since forgotten [Hume]
21305 Memory not only reveals identity, but creates it, by producing resemblances [Hume]
21307 Who thinks that because you have forgotten an incident you are no longer that person? [Hume]
21323 The identity of a thief is only known by similarity, but memory gives certainty in our own case [Reid]
7120 It is theoretically possible that the Ego consists entirely of false memories [Sartre]
5666 Not all exerience can be remembered, as this would produce an infinite regress [Ayer]
5665 Memory is the best proposal as what unites bundles of experiences [Ayer]
1389 If memory is the sole criterion of identity, we ought to use it for other people too [Shoemaker]
1390 Bodily identity is one criterion and memory another, for personal identity [Shoemaker, by PG]
19744 If a person relies on their notes, those notes are parted of the extended system which is the person [Clark/Chalmers]