This paper examines John Stuart Mill’s ‘psychological theory’ of the mind, as he set it out in his
Examination of Sir William Hamilton’s Philosophy. After outlining Mill’s theory and the problem he
finds with it, the paper discusses four different interpretations that have been suggested, before
proposing a new alternative reading. The matter is of intrinsic interest to anyone who sees value in
trying to get the bottom of tricky texts about puzzling questions by great philosophers, but I argue
also that the investigation may help us with another vexed interpretative issue relating to an even
more famous philosopher, David Hume, and that it may hold lessons for the philosophy of mind
today.
Keywords:
anticipation
,perdurance
,psychological
,Mill
,memory
