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Hume's Difficulty Donald L.M. Baxter

Hume's Difficulty By Donald L.M. Baxter

Hume's Difficulty by Donald L.M. Baxter


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Summary

Focuses on Hume's treatment of the concept of numerical identity, which is central to his famous discussions of the external world and personal identity. The author shows the defensibility of that theory against other dismissive interpretations, especially of Hume's stance on infinite divisibility.

Hume's Difficulty Summary

Hume's Difficulty: Time and Identity in the Treatise by Donald L.M. Baxter

In this volume--the first, focused study of Hume on time and identity--Baxter focuses on Humes treatment of the concept of numerical identity, which is central to Hume's famous discussions of the external world and personal identity. Hume raises a long unappreciated, and still unresolved, difficulty with the concept of identity: how to represent something as "a medium betwixt unity and number." Superficial resemblance to Freges famous puzzle has kept the difficulty in the shadows. Humes way of addressing it makes sense only in the context of his unorthodox theory of time. Baxter shows the defensibility of that theory against past dismissive interpretations, especially of Humes stance on infinite divisibility. Later the author shows how the difficulty underlies Humes later worries about his theory of personal identity, in a new reading motivated by Humes important appeals to consciousness. Baxter casts Hume throughout as an acute metaphysician, and reconciles this side of Hume with his overarching Pyrrhonian skepticism.

Hume's Difficulty Reviews

"It is no wonder that the main approaches to so many central philosophical topicsfrom causation to motivation, from concepts to moralsinclude one often dubbed "Humeanism" about the topic; for Hume brought both originality and penetration to almost every philosophical issue he addressed. Until the work of Donald Baxter, however, the originality and penetration of Humes accounts of time and identity were rarely appreciated. Indeed, as Humes Difficulty: Time and Identity in the Treatise makes clear, a long line of distinguished commentators has systemically misunderstood them." --Don Garrett (New York University)

"Clearly and cogently reasoned, every chapter contains a challenging treatment of often neglected doctrines of Treatise, Book I. Above all, the book offers what is, to my mind, the best available interpretation of Humes perplexing theory of the structure of time. Moreover, the work clearly shows that this notion of time is inseparable from Humes account of the genesis of the idea of identity, and through that, belief in the continued existence of body, material and immaterial substances, and personal identity. The book also proposes an innovative and attractive interpretation of the flaw in the account of belief in personal identity recorded in the Appendix. It has made me rethink all of these topics and changed my mind on more than one of them." --Martha Brandt Bolton (Rutgers University)

About Donald L.M. Baxter

Donald L. M. Baxter is Professor of Philosophy at the University of Connecticut.

Table of Contents

Introduction 1. Interpreting Hume as Metaphysician and Sceptic 2. Moments and Durations 3. Steadfast Objects 4. Identity 5. Representing Personal Identity 6. Hume Difficulty about Identity

Additional information

NPB9780415955942
9780415955942
0415955947
Hume's Difficulty: Time and Identity in the Treatise by Donald L.M. Baxter
New
Hardback
Taylor & Francis Ltd
2007-08-29
140
N/A
Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary.
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