There Is Just One Idea of Self in Hume's Treatise

Abstract

Hume's mysterious words, must distinguish betwixt personal identity, as it regards our thought or imagination, and as it regards our passions or concern we take in ourselves have been focus of a variety of different interpretations, some more creative than others. But solution to this interpretative problem is indeed very simple, too simple to occur to most readers. What Hume has in mind is actually nothing but different ways association works with regard to, on one hand, imagination, and, on other hand, passion. Hence, one may easily read entire Treatise as containing just one idea of self, that is, bundle of perceptions discussed in On personal identity. Contrary to what many scholars have recently suggested, this idea may very well be the idea, or rather impression of self at play in mechanism of sympathy, as well as object of pride and humility. This faithful but dull reading makes Hume coherent, probably more coherent than any two-ideas interpretation does.

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