Hume Personal Identity

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In David Hume’s Personal Identity, published in the late 1730s, he rejects the idea of identity over time. He believes there are no persons that continue to exist. They are merely impressions. “Every real idea must arise from some one impression. But self or person is not any one impression, but is rather that to which all our many impressions and ideas are suppose to be related.” (II.iv.6). In other words, Hume believes that ideas are derived from impressions, therefore, “self” is derived from impressions. But there is not on continuous thing. Leading to his theory in which there can’t be only one consistent idea of “self.” Later in the section Hume describes that if self came before impression then the impression would have to exist throughout

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