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The Evident Connexion Galen Strawson (Reading University)

The Evident Connexion By Galen Strawson (Reading University)

The Evident Connexion by Galen Strawson (Reading University)


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Summary

The Evident Connexion presents a bold new reading of David Hume's famous 'bundle' theory of the self or mind, and his later rejection of it. Galen Strawson illuminates the 'uniting principle' of Hume's philosophy and argues that the bundle theory does not, as widely supposed, claim that there are no subjects of experience.

The Evident Connexion Summary

The Evident Connexion: Hume on Personal Identity by Galen Strawson (Reading University)

The Evident Connexion presents a new reading of Hume's 'bundle theory' of the self or mind, and his later rejection of it. Galen Strawson argues that the bundle theory does not claim that there are no subjects of experience, as many have supposed, or that the mind is just a series of experiences. Hume holds only that the 'essence of the mind [is] unknown'. His claim is simply that we have no empirically respectable reason to believe in the existence of a persisting subject, or a mind that is more than a series of experiences (each with its own subject). Why does Hume later reject the bundle theory? Many think he became dissatisfied with his account of how we come to believe in a persisting self, but Strawson suggests that the problem is more serious. The keystone of Hume's philosophy is that our experiences are governed by a 'uniting principle' or 'bond of union'. But a philosophy that takes a bundle of ontologically distinct experiences to be the only legitimate conception of the mind cannot make explanatory use of those notions in the way Hume does. As Hume says in the Appendix to the Treatise of Human Nature: having 'loosen'd all our particular perceptions' in the bundle theory, he is unable to 'explain the principle of connexion, which binds them together'. This lucid book is the first to be wholly dedicated to Hume's theory of personal identity, and presents a bold new interpretation which bears directly on current debates among scholars of Hume's philosophy.

The Evident Connexion Reviews

This book will be of interest for the many who are concerned with Hume's discussion of personal identity, and particularly for those who want to explore whether the engaging yet controversial New Hume reading can be extended to address the interpretive puzzles of Hume's discussion of personal identity. * Journal of the History of Philosophy *

About Galen Strawson (Reading University)

Galen Strawson is Professor of Philosophy at Reading University. Prior to that he was Fellow and Tutor in Philosophy at Jesus College, Oxford (1987-2000). From 2004 to 2007 he was also Distinguished Professor of Philosophy at CUNY Graduate Center in New York. He has held visiting positions at the Research School of Social Sciences at the Australian National University (1993), New York University (1997), Rutgers University (2000), and MIT (2010). Strawson received his degrees from the University of Cambridge and the University of Oxford, and studied at the Ecole normale superieure and the Sorbonne in Paris (1977-1998).

Table of Contents

1: EPISTEMOLOGY, SEMANTICS, AND ONTOLOGY; 2: MIND, SELF, AND PERSON; 3: HUME'S APPENDIX

Additional information

NLS9780199680603
9780199680603
0199680604
The Evident Connexion: Hume on Personal Identity by Galen Strawson (Reading University)
New
Paperback
Oxford University Press
2013-05-30
178
N/A
Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary.
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