First Published in 2002

Personal identity lies at the very heart of Hume’s philosophy but has received surprisingly limited attention. Hume’s Philosophy of the Self is the first book to go beyond the famous section of the Treatise, ‘Of Personal Identity’, and explore the fundamental concern with the Self that pervades all of Hume’s work.

A. E. Pitson argues innovatively that this concern rests on a crucial distinction between two aspects of personal identity: our thought and our passions.

Hume’s Philosophy of the Self addresses issues fundamental to the study of eighteenth-century thought, the Scottish Enlightenment and naturalism, and offers an essential new perspective on Hume’s moral philosophy, epistemology and philosophy of mind.