L'identità personale in David Hume: dalle passioni all'etica

Abstract

Personal Identity in David Hume: From Passions to Ethics

In this paper I offer a reconstruction of David Hume’s discussion of personal identity. I argue that, notwithstanding Hume’s description of personal identity in Book 1 of A Treatise of Human Nature in terms of a «bundle of perceptions», he is nevertheless in a position to present a unified conception of the self. This becomes apparent when he moves on to Books 2 and 3 of the same Treatise to talk about the passions of pride and humility. I conclude by suggesting that by putting weight on these passions Hume can arrive at a definition of the self that finds its completion in the ethical dimension.