Book 1, Part 4:

Section 6: Personal Identity and the Self

What the self is not.

What the self is: a "biass of the imagination"(T 1.4.6.6)

The example of the oak tree.

"The identity, which we ascribe to the mind of man, is only a fictitious one"(T. 1.4.6.15)

Personal identity is not the result of an impression of the senses, but an impression of reflection.

The two factors that create the illusion of personal

identity: memory and mental causation.

"The question is, how far we ought to yield to these illusions [of the imagination]."(T 1.4.7.6)

Appendix: Hume's acknowledgment of an inconsistency in his account of personal identity. There is disagreement about what the inconsistency is. Talbott's suggestion: The causal relation and the resemblance relation between past impressions and memory.

Section 7. Conclusion

What have we learned in Book 1 about human knowledge and belief?

Reason is replaced by "strong propensity" to believe.

Inference is "so little founded on reason"(T 1.4.7.3)

Foundation is the imagination, the vivacity of our ideas.

The Main Normative Question: How far ought we to yield to the illusions of the imagination?

The contest between philosophy and superstition.

Hume, the true sceptic.

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