The Ownership of Perceptions: A Study of Hume's Metaphysics

A question which immediately arises is: How "loose" and disconnected, how independent, can perceptions be for Hume? We need an answer to this question in order to understand what Hume thought was involved in the reuniting or "binding together" of perceptions. One answer is that the loosening is radical, that Hume's problem is to say how to reunite any par ticular person's perceptions once they are radically loosened and belong in the fund of all perceptions in the world. This answer is supported by Hume's statement of the problem as involving the loosening of our per ceptions, i.e., all perceptions of all persons. A second answer is that Hume has only loosened his perceptions, but that Hume does not think of the loosened perceptions as potentially not his. On this answer, Hume's prob lem is to say how to reunite all of his perceptions. In contrast, the first answer suggests that Hume's problem is to determine which perceptions are his.