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Single Idea 1395

[filed under theme 16. Persons / B. Nature of the Self / 5. Self as Associations ]

Full Idea

What makes it true that a particular thought or experience is a member of one bundle rather than another?

Gist of Idea

Why would a thought be a member of one bundle rather than another?

Source

Peter Carruthers (Introducing Persons [1986], 2.iii (B))

Book Ref

Carruthers,Peter: 'Introducing Persons' [Routledge 1992], p.54


A Reaction

I'm not sure if you can answer this nice question without mentioning values. The mental events in are in my bundle because they matter to me (because they are related to my body, for which I am responsible). Compare picking my possessions out of a pile.


The 13 ideas with the same theme [Self is a unity formed by associating mental events]:

Hume's 'bundle' won't distinguish one mind with ten experiences from ten minds [Searle on Hume]
A person is just a fast-moving bundle of perceptions [Hume]
The parts of a person are always linked together by causation [Hume]
Hume gives us an interesting sketchy causal theory of personal identity [Perry on Hume]
A person is simply a bundle of continually fluctuating perceptions [Hume]
Experiences are logically separate, but factually linked by simultaneity or a feeling of continuousness [Ayer on Hume]
Is something an 'experience' because it relates to other experiences, or because it relates to a subject? [Ayer]
Qualia must be united by a subject, because they lead to concepts and judgements [Ayer]
If the self is meaningful, it must be constructed from sense-experiences [Ayer]
The bundle must also have agency in order to act, and a self to act rationally [Searle]
Personal identity is just causally related mental states [Parfit, by Maslin]
Can the mental elements of a 'bundle' exist on their own? [Carruthers]
Why would a thought be a member of one bundle rather than another? [Carruthers]