An Improved Account of the Belief in the Continued Existence of Bodies

I have two aims in this chapter. I will argue, first, that Hume’s accounts of the aetiology of the vulgar and the philosophical beliefs about “bodies” are both inadequate. Second, I will develop a much more satisfactory account, at which Hume himself hints, based on the same idea I developed in Chap. 13 , pertaining to induction. This will enable me to consider (Chap. 15 ) the different impacts the two views – Materialism and a more sensible Idealism than Hume’s – have on the justification (or lack thereof) of our ampliatively-acquired beliefs.