You will need to pick a topic for me Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

You will need to pick a topic for me - Essay Example These are just some of the questions that plagued the venerated Philosopher David Hume. In section four of A Treatise of Human Nature (1739), Hume states that the majority of people believe that they are the ‘same’ person that they believe they were two, five or even ten years ago. Although many different aspects of themselves will have ‘changed,’ they still feel that their personal identity remains the same.1 So if we do not truly know ourselves, then what is this information that we have about ourselves? What are all these insights that only we have access to that we assume constitutes our identity? In this paper we will examine Hume’s theory that all we observe are our perceptions, not our true self. We will look at what Hume states in his treatise and discuss whether what he says is plausible in any way. Let us begin by examining Hume’s epistemology. Empiricism was a pivotal to Hume’s theories, particularly the work of Locke.2 Empiricism sought to â€Å"discover†¦the original, certainty, and extent of human knowledge.†3 Hume’s treatise was his attempt at â€Å"developing a ‘science of man,’†4 that would show and explain to us â€Å"the extent and force of human understanding†¦which could explain the nature of the ideas we employ, and of the operations we perform in our reasoning.†5 He believed that all human knowledge originates with experience, and that all of our experiences are of our own perceptions.6 It was when Hume applied these ideas to our personal identity and the notion of the ‘self’ that his argument against â€Å"the existence of a substantival mind†7 was born. His argument is a logical one, although worrying (to think that there is a possibility that we cannot know our true ‘self’). Hume believed that because all of our knowledge is derived from our experiences, and that our experiences depend directly upon our perceptions, that these