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Single Idea 1333

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

Full Idea

Memory does not so much produce as discover personal identity, by showing us the relation of cause and effect among our different perceptions.

Gist of Idea

Memory only reveals personal identity, by showing cause and effect

Source

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

Book Ref

'Personal Identity', ed/tr. Perry,John [University of California 1975], p.171

A Reaction

This is a rather strained proposal, as the revelation of a network of cause and effect seems to have no implications for personal identity (unless only 'I' could be the cause).

The 60 ideas from 'Treatise of Human Nature'

11098 Momentary impressions are wrongly identified with one another on the basis of resemblance [Hume, by Quine]
5548 Hume became a total sceptic, because he believed that reason was a deception [Hume, by Kant]
7446 The idea of inductive evidence, around 1660, made Hume's problem possible [Hume, by Hacking]
3819 Hume's 'bundle' won't distinguish one mind with ten experiences from ten minds [Searle on Hume]
6526 Hume says objects are not a construction, but an imaginative leap [Hume, by Robinson,H]
6182 Even Hume didn't include mathematics in his empiricism [Hume, by Kant]
6489 Associationism results from having to explain intentionality just with sense-data [Robinson,H on Hume]
20030 If one event causes another, the two events must be wholly distinct [Hume, by Wilson/Schpall]
6692 For Hume, practical reason has little force, because we can always modify our desires [Hume, by Graham]
4008 Modern science has destroyed the Platonic synthesis of scientific explanation and morality [Hume, by Taylor,C]
8067 The problem of getting to 'ought' from 'is' would also apply in getting to 'owes' or 'needs' [Anscombe on Hume]
8382 For Hume a constant conjunction is both necessary and sufficient for causation [Hume, by Crane]
19274 Hume seems to presuppose necessary connections between mental events [Kripke on Hume]
12048 The only meaning we have for substance is a collection of qualities [Hume]
7954 If we see a resemblance among objects, we apply the same name to them, despite their differences [Hume]
9428 Nothing we clearly imagine is absolutely impossible [Hume]
8649 Two numbers are equal if all of their units correspond to one another [Hume]
4766 Necessity only exists in the mind, and not in objects [Hume]
1207 Both number and unity are incompatible with the relation of identity [Hume]
21290 Multiple objects cannot convey identity, because we see them as different [Hume]
21289 'An object is the same with itself' is meaningless; it expresses unity, not identity [Hume]
21292 Saying an object is the same with itself is only meaningful over a period of time [Hume]
21291 There is no medium state between existence and non-existence [Hume]
21293 Individuation is only seeing that a thing is stable and continuous over time [Hume]
13424 Aristotelians propose accidents supported by substance, but they don't understand either of them [Hume]
14301 We have no good concept of solidity or matter, because accounts of them are all circular [Hume]
21296 If all of my perceptions were removed by death, nothing more is needed for total annihilation [Hume]
1321 If identity survives change or interruption, then resemblance, contiguity or causation must unite the parts of it [Hume]
1330 If a republic can retain identity through many changes, so can an individual [Hume]
21299 Changing a part can change the whole, not absolutely, but by its proportion of the whole [Hume]
21300 A change more obviously destroys an identity if it is quick and observed [Hume]
21302 If a ruined church is rebuilt, its relation to its parish makes it the same church [Hume]
21303 We accept the identity of a river through change, because it is the river's nature [Hume]
21301 The purpose of the ship makes it the same one through all variations [Hume]
1317 A person is just a fast-moving bundle of perceptions [Hume]
1331 The parts of a person are always linked together by causation [Hume]
1388 Hume gives us an interesting sketchy causal theory of personal identity [Perry on Hume]
21297 A person is simply a bundle of continually fluctuating perceptions [Hume]
1316 Introspection always discovers perceptions, and never a Self without perceptions [Hume]
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]
21306 Causation unites our perceptions, by producing, destroying and modifying each other [Hume]
21294 A continuous lifelong self must be justified by a single sustained impression, which we don't have [Hume]
21295 When I introspect I can only observe my perceptions, and never a self which has them [Hume]
21298 We pretend our perceptions are continuous, and imagine a self to fill the gaps [Hume]
21304 Identity in the mind is a fiction, like that fiction that plants and animals stay the same [Hume]
21806 Memory, senses and understanding are all founded on the imagination [Hume]
22374 You can only hold people responsible for actions which arise out of their character [Hume]
8257 Reason alone can never be a motive to any action of the will [Hume]
3807 Reason is and ought to be the slave of the passions [Hume]
3650 Total selfishness is not irrational [Hume]
4578 You can't move from 'is' to 'ought' without giving some explanation or reason for the deduction [Hume]
22382 We cannot discover vice by studying a wilful murder; that only arises from our own feelings [Hume]
12417 Mathematicians only accept their own proofs when everyone confims them [Hume]
11950 We have no idea of powers, because we have no impressions of them [Hume]
11949 There may well be powers in things, with which we are quite unacquainted [Hume]
11941 The distinction between a power and its exercise is entirely frivolous [Hume]
11942 Power is the possibility of action, as discovered by experience [Hume]