Written Reflection3

Hume on Identity

(1711-1776)

Hume

• Hume argues that we can have no REAL idea of the self, since there is no impression that this idea can be derived from.

• Hume is a strict empiricist. He thinks that all of our ideas must come from experience.

Hume

• The empirical rule is that all genuine ideas are traceable to impressions. The idea that we have of the self is a thing that remains constant through all the changes of our perceptions.

Hume

• “For there must be some one impression that gives rise to every real idea. But self is not any one impression; it is that which our several impressions and ideas are supposed to refer.”

Hume

• Hume argues that there is NO constant among the wash of our experiences. The self is something in principle that we cannot experience.

• It is the locus of experience, the thing having the experiences, but since we cannot experience it, we cannot know about it.

Hume

• Whenever I try to think of myself, I think of experiences, but none of these experiences are ME.

Hume

• Hume then addresses the self as a collection of experiences..... but even looking at the bundle idea of identity, there still is nothing identical. The pile changes so dramatically, so that it isn’t the same pile.

Hume

• Hume then compares the mind to a theater. Things come and go into our mind like actors and sets come and go to a stage. There is nothing that is constant about the mind. And moreover, we cannot even have an impression of the “constant” nature of the stage.

Hume

• But since we want to keep this concept of identity alive so much, we come up with theories of the soul, or self, or substance, that can be invariant through time, but which we have no real reason to believe in the existence of.

Hume

• So Hume then addresses why we HAVE this illusion of identity. Where does this come from?

Hume

• Hume says that ALL ascriptions of identity are false.

Hume

• But we CALL things the same things anyways... Why? Because of habituation.

Hume

• Identity seems to be connected to how much change in an object we can tolerate. If the changes to the object are small (relatively speaking) then we can tolerate the change and continue to call it the same thing, even though it has changed.

Hume

• We can tolerate even large changes, if the changes are gradual and slow, or insensible (e.g. molecular replacement over 7 years.)