Knowledge Tree
David Hume
Facts (45)
Sources
Dualism (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy/Winter 2016 Edition) plato.stanford.edu Aug 19, 2003 20 facts
claimGeorge Berkeley entertained a theory similar to David Hume's bundle theory in his Philosophical Commentaries (Notebook A, paragraphs 577-81), but later rejected it in favor of the claim that humans can have a notion, though not an idea, of the self.
claimPhysicalists generally accept David Hume's bundle theory unless they wish to ascribe the unity of the mind to the brain or the organism as a whole.
claimDavid Hume claimed the mind is nothing but a 'bundle' or 'heap' of impressions and ideas, which are particular mental states or events without an owner.
quoteDavid Hume described the mind as a theatre, stating: "The mind is a kind of theatre where several perceptions successively make their appearance; pass, re-pass, glide away and mingle in an infinite variety of postures and situations."
claimThe debate over whether William James's position on consciousness improves upon David Hume's or merely mystifies it remains unresolved.
referenceDavid Hume is credited with the "bundle" theory of the self, which asserts that mental states exist without an underlying subject or substance to possess them, as described in his work "Treatise Book I, Part IV, section VI."
claimDavid Hume criticized the conception of substance for lacking empirical content, arguing that searching for the owner of properties that make up a substance reveals only further properties.
accountDavid Hume, in the appendix to the Treatise, declared himself mystified by the problem of the unity of the mind and rejected his own initial solution.
claimDavid Hume's bundle theory is a theory about the nature of the unity of the mind and is not necessarily dualist.
claimCriticism of arguments and intuitions regarding identity, spanning from David Hume to Derek Parfit (1970, 1984), has resulted in an inconclusive clash of intuitions.
claimDavid Hume rejected the claim that the self is something over and above its contents, instead proclaiming the self to be nothing more than a concatenation of its ephemeral contents.
claimDavid Hume asserted that when he introspects, he only encounters specific perceptions like heat, cold, light, shade, love, hatred, pain, or pleasure, and can never observe a self independent of these perceptions.
claimWhile David Hume accepted the consequence that mental contents could exist alone, most philosophers regard the idea of a mind consisting of a lone pain or red after-image as absurd.
claimDavid Hume held the view that subjects of mental states are merely bundles of immaterial states, rather than distinct entities over and above those states.
claimThe philosophical problem of relating visual and auditory fields to produce a 'unity of apperception' has roots in the philosophy of David Hume.
claimDavid Hume's original philosophical position denies that humans have any sense of self, whereas versions of bundle theory that allow for awareness of relatedness accommodate the sense of self by explaining it as an illusion.
claimIn the Appendix to his work, David Hume expressed dissatisfaction with his own bundle theory of the self because he could not reconcile two principles: that all distinct perceptions are distinct existences, and that the mind never perceives any real connection between distinct existences.
claimDerek Parfit (1970, 1984) and Sydney Shoemaker (1984) accept David Hume's bundle theory as physicalists.
claimDavid Hume believed that an impression might 'float free' from the mind to which it belonged, implying that the identity conditions of individual mental states are independent of the identity of the person who possesses them.
referenceDavid Hume authored 'A Treatise of Human Nature', originally published in 1739, with a 2000 edition edited by D.F. Norton and M.J. Norton published by Oxford University Press.
Self-Consciousness - Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy plato.stanford.edu Jul 13, 2017 12 facts
claimPhilosophers who support David Hume's view that introspection reveals only perceptions include Shoemaker (1986), Martin (1997), Howell (2010), and Prinz (2012).
referenceUdo Thiel examined the history of self-consciousness and personal identity from René Descartes to David Hume in his 2011 book 'The Early Modern Subject: Self-Consciousness and Personal Identity from Descartes to Hume'.
claimDavid Hume rejected the idea that introspection reveals the self, claiming that when he introspected, he could never catch himself, but only perceptions.
claimDavid Hume posits that the idea of the self is nothing more than a 'heap or collection of different perceptions' because there is no impression or perception of the owner of these perceptions.
claimA.E. Pitson examined David Hume's philosophy of the self in his 2002 book 'Hume’s Philosophy of the Self'.
claimBertrand Russell initially favored the idea that humans are acquainted with themselves in his early work, but by the 1920s, he endorsed a view more aligned with David Hume's skeptical account.
referenceGalen Strawson analyzed David Hume's views on personal identity in the 2011 book 'The Evident Connexion: Hume on Personal Identity'.
claimPhilosophers who oppose David Hume's view that introspection reveals only perceptions include Chisholm (1976), Cassam (1995), G. Strawson (2009), Damasio (2010), and Rosenthal (2012).
quoteDavid Hume writes: 'For my part when I enter most intimately into what I call myself, I always stumble on some particular perception or other, of heat or cold, light or shade, love or hatred, pain or pleasure. I never can catch myself at any time without a perception, and never can observe anything but the perception.'
claimDavid Hume's skepticism about self-perception is challenged by the observation that while Hume claimed he could find no self in introspection, he reported his findings in first-personal terms, indicating he was aware of his mental states as his own, as noted by Roderick Chisholm (1976).
claimDavid Hume argues that when he examines his own consciousness, he never encounters a 'self' but only stumbles upon particular perceptions such as heat, cold, light, shade, love, hatred, pain, or pleasure.
claimTerence Penelhum analyzed themes in the philosophy of David Hume in his 2000 book 'Themes in Hume'.
The Hard Problem of Consciousness | Springer Nature Link link.springer.com 4 facts
claimThe mind-body problem became the central question of epistemology and modern philosophy due to the problematization of the mind and its relation to reality by René Descartes, John Locke, George Berkeley, David Hume, and Immanuel Kant.
perspectivevon Stillfried (2018) argues that David Chalmers' definition of consciousness is circular because, if experience is assumed to be the only intrinsic evidence, the causal structure of time-space cannot be differentiated from cognitive structures, a problem previously demonstrated by David Hume and Immanuel Kant.
claimDavid Hume suggested in 2017 that there is no self in the sense of Descartes's cogito, but only a flux of impressions and ideas, including memories of past impressions, which leads to the fiction of a self-identity.
claimGeorge Berkeley, David Hume, and Immanuel Kant contested the possibility of acquiring reliable knowledge about the physical world.
Non-physicalist Theories of Consciousness cambridge.org Dec 20, 2023 3 facts
claimDavid Hume claimed that causal relations are unintelligible and mysterious because humans do not experience the power, energy, or other qualities that are ordinarily taken to characterize causal relations.
claimDavid Hume proposed that the self is a 'bundle of perceptions' rather than an entity distinct from those perceptions.
claimDavid Hume argued that the connection between causes and effects cannot be explained or understood because humans only perceive causes followed by effects, rather than any binding powers or forces.
Panpsychism (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy/Fall 2025 Edition) plato.stanford.edu May 23, 2001 2 facts
claimHedda Hassel Mørch argues against David Hume that experience reveals a necessary connection between the mental events of feeling pain and trying to avoid pain, using this as a basis for panpsychism.
claimDavid Hume argued that humans do not experience a necessary connection between cause and effect.
Consciousness (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy/Fall 2025 ... plato.stanford.edu Jun 18, 2004 2 facts
claimRené Descartes (1644) and John Searle (1992) posit that conscious experiences exist as modes or states of a conscious self or subject, rather than as isolated mental atoms, a view contrasted by David Hume (1739).
referenceAssociationist psychology, as pursued by John Locke, David Hume (1739), and James Mill (1829), aimed to discover the principles by which conscious thoughts or ideas interact with or affect one another.
Panpsychism - Wikipedia en.wikipedia.org 1 fact
perspectiveUwe Meixner divides formulations of panpsychism into dualist and idealist versions, further dividing the latter into "atomistic idealistic panpsychism" (ascribed to David Hume) and "holistic idealistic panpsychism" (which Meixner favors).
Self-Consciousness - Open Encyclopedia of Cognitive Science oecs.mit.edu Jul 24, 2024 1 fact
claimImmanuel Kant denied that introspection presents humans with any sort of self-as-object, echoing an insight previously held by David Hume.