Abstract

The section “Of Personal Identityµ of Hume’s Treatise is one of the most difficult to interpret. It has raised doubts among scholars both for its famous account of the self as a bundle of perceptions, and for Hume’s “second thoughtsµ about it that occurred in the Appendix to the Treatise (composed three years later). What exactly he was disappointed with his theory is still a matter of debate. In this paper I will argue that the problems raised by Hume in the Appendix can already be found in the section “Of Personal Identity,µ and that, accordingly, no second thoughts in the strict sense occurred in the Appendix; rather, Hume fully recognized an impasse within his science of human nature.