Combining Texts

Ideas for 'teaching', 'works' and 'Treatise of Human Nature'

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4 ideas

9. Objects / F. Identity among Objects / 1. Concept of Identity
1207 Both number and unity are incompatible with the relation of identity [Hume]
     Full Idea: Both number and unity are incompatible with the relation of identity.
     From: David Hume (Treatise of Human Nature [1739], I.IV.2)
21290 Multiple objects cannot convey identity, because we see them as different [Hume]
     Full Idea: A mutiplicity of objects can never convey the idea of identity. The mind always pronounces the one not to be the other.
     From: David Hume (Treatise of Human Nature [1739], I.IV.2)
     A reaction: However, if we are talking on the phone about two objects we are viewing, such as two buildings, our descriptions might lead us to conclude that our objects are identical. Thus experience might imply identity.
9. Objects / F. Identity among Objects / 5. Self-Identity
21289 'An object is the same with itself' is meaningless; it expresses unity, not identity [Hume]
     Full Idea: In that proposition 'an object is the same with itself', if the idea expressed by the word 'object' were no way distinguished from that meant by 'itself', we should really mean nothing. ...One single object conveys the idea of unity, not that of identity.
     From: David Hume (Treatise of Human Nature [1739], I.IV.2)
     A reaction: As far as I can see it is mathematicians who like self-identity, to justify x=x, which they need. To say 'this vase is identical with itself' is an empty locution. It expresses either unity or stability over time. See Idea 21292.
21292 Saying an object is the same with itself is only meaningful over a period of time [Hume]
     Full Idea: We cannot, in any propriety of speech, say that an object is the same with itself, unless we mean that the object existent at one time is the same with itself at another time.
     From: David Hume (Treatise of Human Nature [1739], I.IV.2)
     A reaction: This seems correct, but the strict language of identity is superfluous when identifying stolen goods. 'This is my watch', not 'this watch is identical with my watch'.