ABSTRACT
Just as the existence of any absolutely simple self was denied by Hume, so the reality not only of the transcendent, but equally of systematic, selfhood has in our own day been questioned by Mr. Bradley. “Is the self real, is it anything which we can predicate of reality?” he asks. “Or is it, on the other hand, a mere appearance—something which is given, and, in a sense, most certainly exists, but which is too full of contradictions to be the genuine fact?” and he continues, “I have been forced to embrace the latter conclusion”. 1 The ground of his philosophic repudiation of the reality of selfhood at once shows his position to be diametrically opposed to Hume’s; for contradictions necessarily imply some measure of complexity, even though they also render any true system impossible.
