The Self as a Relatively Constant Mass of Bodily Feeling

Abstract

We began with Hume’s ‘labyrinth’, the state of perplexity into which he got when he asked himself ‘whether in pronouncing concerning the identity of a person, we observe some real bond among his perceptions, or only feel one among the ideas we form of them’ (42, p. 259). After exploring this labyrinth a little, we established landmarks, in the form of the Unity Question and the Identity Question. The Unity Question is about what unites a succession of experiences, making them the same person’s experiences. The Identity Question is about what is essential to personal identity.