Body, Mind and Self in Humes Critical Realism

This essay proposes that Humes non-substantialist bundle account of minds is basically correct. The concept of a person is not a metaphysical notion but a forensic one, that of a being who enters into the moral and normative relations of civil society. A person is a bundle but it is also a structured bundle. Humes metaphysics of relations is argued must be replaced by a more adequate one such as that of Russell, but beyond that Humes account is essentially correct. In particular it is argued that it is ones character that constitutes ones identity; and that sympathy and the passions of pride and humility are central in forming and maintaining ones character and ones identity as a person. But also central is ones body: a person is an embodied consciousness: the notion that ones body is essential to ones identity is defended at length. Various concepts of mind and consciousness are examined - for example, neutral monism and intentionality - and also the concept of privacy and our inferences to other minds.