Hume's Difficulty

Time and Identity in the Treatise

Donald L.M. Baxter (Autor)

Buch | Softcover

130 Seiten

2009
Routledge (Verlag)
978-0-415-80477-6 (ISBN)

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In this volume--the first, focused study of Hume on time and identity--Baxter focuses on Hume’s 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 Frege’s famous puzzle has kept the difficulty in the shadows. Hume’s 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 Hume’s stance on infinite divisibility. Later the author shows how the difficulty underlies Hume’s later worries about his theory of personal identity, in a new reading motivated by Hume’s important appeals to consciousness. Baxter casts Hume throughout as an acute metaphysician, and reconciles this side of Hume with his overarching Pyrrhonian skepticism.

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

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

Erscheint lt. Verlag	6.3.2009
Reihe/Serie	Routledge Studies in Eighteenth-Century Philosophy
Verlagsort	London
Sprache	englisch
Maße	156 x 234 mm
Gewicht	260 g
Themenwelt	Geisteswissenschaften ► Philosophie ► Ethik
	Geisteswissenschaften ► Philosophie ► Geschichte der Philosophie
	Geisteswissenschaften ► Philosophie ► Metaphysik / Ontologie
	Geisteswissenschaften ► Philosophie ► Philosophie des Mittelalters
	Sozialwissenschaften ► Politik / Verwaltung ► Europäische / Internationale Politik
	Wirtschaft ► Volkswirtschaftslehre ► Wirtschaftspolitik
ISBN-10	0-415-80477-9 / 0415804779
ISBN-13	978-0-415-80477-6 / 9780415804776
Zustand	Neuware