Dear all, Lilli Alanen (Uppsala) will be speaking at the next meeting of the moral sciences club with a talk titled *P**ersonal Identity, Passions and Hume's 'True Idea of the Human Mind'*: The abstract for this talk is below:
*This paper explores some strands of the new science of man proposed in Hume’s Treatise, focusing on its account of personal identity and the role given to the passions in this account. What is the view of self with regard to the passions examined in Book 2 and how is it supposed to complement the view of self with regard to thought and imagination discussed in Book 1 (T1.4.6.19)? I argue that the best way of understanding this is by taking the analogy of the self and the republic or commonwealth presented at the end of Book 1– what Hume describes as a “true idea of the human mind”— seriously as a political analogy. Seeing the relations between its idea-members as relations of power gives it a structure, dynamic and a recognized territory that the heap, the bundle or the theatre lack. It gives the passions expressing the changing states of a sentient and social animal with its concern for itself and others an important role already in the Book 1 discussion that the later analysis in Book 2 explains and strengthens. It brings in a holistic perspective where more than mere causation and resemblance are at play in structuring and linking together the system of changing perceptions, explaining whatever imperfect unity and identity it can have and is sufficient for the moral psychology and ethics developed in Books 2 and 3.* *I begin by considering Hume’s problem with the self in Treatise Book 1.4.6. and the principles at play in his analysis of it, before discussing the nature of the idea or fiction of the self and the ways the later account of passions could be seen as completing it. (Sections 1 and 2). Section 3 looks at the Book 2 account of passions, particularly the indirect passions and their role in the constitution of personal identity. The last section reflects on Hume’s true idea of the human mind in the light of the reading here defended of his theory of passions. The metaphor of the republic, I claim, already comes with the all the elements that a broader, embodied and social self presupposes. It is thus because the idea of the mind sketched at the end of Book One is at it were grounded in the passions that the examination of their nature and mechanisms in Book Two can be seen by Hume as actually “corroborating” it.* This meeting will be held on Tuesday the 8th March from 2.30 until 4.15 in the Barbara White room in Newnham College.The meeting will be followed by tea and coffee in the philosophy faculty. For those who have not yet paid, there is a yearly membership fee of £7.50 for students and £15 for others (alternatively, students can pay a one-off fee for the meeting of £2 and others can pay a one-off fee of £3). These fees can be paid online (at the following link: http://onlinesales.admin.cam.ac.uk/browse/extra_info.asp?compid=1&modid=1&catid=75&prodvarid=87) or in cash on the day. We look forward to seeing many of you there. Best wishes, Adam Bales and Daisy Dixon -- Daisy Dixon and Adam Bales Secretaries of the Moral Sciences Club Faculty of Philosophy University of Cambridge [email protected] http://www.phil.cam.ac.uk/seminars-phil/seminars-msc _____________________________________________________ To unsubscribe from the CamPhilEvents mailing list, or change your membership options, please visit the list information page: http://bit.ly/CamPhilEvents List archive: http://bit.ly/CamPhilEventsArchive Please note that CamPhilEvents doesn't accept email attachments. See the list information page for further details and suggested alternatives.
