H. P. Grice unlocks Hume's puzzle with Locke's "I"

When I turn my reflection on

myself, I never can perceive

this self without some one or

more perceptions."


"Nor can I ever perceive any thing

but the perceptions. It is the composition

of these, therefore, which forms the self."


"We can conceive a thinking being to

have either many or few perceptions."


"Suppose the mind to be reduced even

below the life of an oyster. Suppose it

to have only one perception, as of thirst or hunger.

Consider it in that situation. Do you

conceive any thing but merely that perception?"



"Have you any notion of self or substance?"


"If not, the addition of other perceptions can

never give you that notion."





"The annihilation, which some people suppose to

follow upon death, and which entirely destroys

this self, is nothing but an extinction

of all particular perceptions; love and hatred,

pain and pleasure, thought and sensation."



"These therefore must be the same

with self; since the one cannot

survive the other."



"Is self the same with substance?"


"If it be, how can that question have place,

concerning the subsistence of self, under

a change of substance?"



"If they be distinct, what is the difference

betwixt them?"



"For my part, I have a notion of neither, when

conceived distinct from particular perceptions." ... "However extraordinary this conclusion may seem,

it need not surprise us."



"Most philosophers seem inclined to think,

that PERSONAL IDENTITY arises from

consciousness; and consciousness is nothing

but a reflected thought or perception."