ABSTRACT
David Hume sets out to show how the vulgar and philosophical versions of the belief in the continued and distinct existence of bodies arise. His intention is to show that neither form of the belief arises through reasoning or sense experience, but through the natural operations of the imagination. Hume's disconcerting conclusion is among the most disturbing results of his application of causal reasoning to fundamental human ideas and beliefs. Thomas Reid is remembered as the first philosopher seriously to question the empiricist assumptions which underpinned the theory of ideas of Locke and Berkeley. Reid is correct in ascribing the chief assumption of the theory to Hume, although, as many commentators now recognise, he is mistaken in attributing to him the sceptical conclusion that there are no external objects, causes or identical persons. Only recently did evidence of Hume's considered response to Reid come to light.
