ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the thematization of the issue in Tristram Shandy in the context of a contemporary philosophical work, David Hume's A Treatise of Human Nature. Personal identity is what Tristram seeks in vain by the introspective method of writing a definitive account of himself. Tristram's digressive manner of pursuing wayward associations accords well with Hume's doctrine of the subjectivity of cause and effect. Tristram, constantly troubled by anxious thoughts about impotence, tends by a natural paradox to conceive of causation in terms of obstruction rather than enablement. Tristram regards it as the function of a good narrative to bring 'hidden causes' to light, and he clearly enjoys the fact that individual characters cannot perceive these. For one thing, Tristram's infinitely regressing enquiries after causes and effects tend to define him as his father's son — and that in the most deliciously ambiguous sense, since Tristram entertains substantial doubts as to his own legitimacy of birth.
