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Single Idea 1330

[filed under theme 9. Objects / E. Objects over Time / 2. Objects that Change ]

Full Idea

As the same individual republic may not only change its members, but also its laws and constitutions; in like manner the same person may vary his character and disposition, as well as his impressions and ideas, without losing his identity.

Gist of Idea

If a republic can retain identity through many changes, so can an individual

Source

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

Book Ref

'Personal Identity', ed/tr. Perry,John [University of California 1975], p.170

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]
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]
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]
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]
21291 There is no medium state between existence and non-existence [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]
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]
1330 If a republic can retain identity through many changes, so can an individual [Hume]
21300 A change more obviously destroys an identity if it is quick and observed [Hume]
21299 Changing a part can change the whole, not absolutely, but by its proportion of the whole [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]
1321 If identity survives change or interruption, then resemblance, contiguity or causation must unite the parts of it [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]