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Single Idea 21296

[from 'Treatise of Human Nature' by David Hume, in 29. Religion / D. Religious Issues / 2. Immortality / a. Immortality ]

Full Idea

Were all my perceptions removed by death, and I could I neither think nor feel nor see nor love nor hate, after the dissolution of my body, I should be enitrely annihilated, nor do I conceive what is further requisite to make me a perfect non-entity.

Gist of Idea

If all of my perceptions were removed by death, nothing more is needed for total annihilation

Source

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

Book Reference

Hume,David: 'A Treatise of Human Nature', ed/tr. Selby-Bigge/Nidditch [OUP 1978], p.252


A Reaction

'A perfect non-entity'. How about that for an eighteenth century rejection of immortality of the soul? In the context, his point is that the has no enduring self, apart from this range of experiences.