Hume Concerning Self word Essay Research Paper

Hume: Concerning Self (word) Essay, Research Paper

Hume and Hume(an) Nature:

Concerning Self

David Hume (1711-1776) was, in many respects, a traditional philosopher of the European Enlightenment. He worshipped the empirical appeal to the senses, and sought to create a philosophy of human nature that would reflect the power the senses hold over human lives. Hum’s unique and brilliant arguments tossed many of the philosophies of his day in the trash heap. His blitzkrieg on the ideas of the time is said to have inspired Kant to eventually rise to the Enlightenment’s defense with his Critique of Pure Reason.

It may be said that that Hume was an empiricist, in the canon of John Locke and George Berkeley. However, Hume possessed several distinctive characteristics that make his philosophy more complete than theirs. Berkeley and Locke were both pious, even mystical in their own ways. Hume was never pious; his atheism was widely rumored throughout his life. This gave him the advantage (or perhaps the disadvantage) of never being afraid to follow his logic to its conclusion. A religious thinker is tempted to subvert his epistemology and conclusions to follow the doctrines of faith. Hume, viewing the world without a confining mask of belief, vigorously chased reason where it would take him. He never cared if his discoveries would subvert some dearly-held tradition or ideal.

During his life, Hume succeeded in trashing many of the commonly accepted Western concepts of human nature. Because I like skepticism, I will focus on a subject Hume was most skeptical about; the subject of Self. Hashed about since the beginning of philosophy, the Self had been transformed, humbled, elevated and demonized well before his day. It wasn’t until the arrival of the obese Scott known as David Hume, however, that the concept of Self suffered a truly mortal wound. Before I explore Hume’s view of Self, however, it is necessary to give some background information on his theories and personal history.

David Hume was born in Edinburgh, Scotland, to a proud family of moderate means. He was educated in Britain, and moved to France at age 23 to write his first novel. He hoped the book would sell well, inspire a generation of new thought, and make him rich. It was titled A Treatise of Human Nature, and Hume had difficulty finding a publisher who would print the manuscript. As with many geniuses, Hume encountered much discouragement before his ideas were accepted. When the Treatise finally appeared in 1738, it “fell dead-born from the press” (in Hume’s own words). Not only was the book a terrible seller, it failed even to achieve Hume’s goal of challenging traditional thought. The religious zealots who were supposed to have been so offended by his ideas had never even heard of them. Hume eventually re-published his Treatise in the form of two Enquiries, An Enquiry Concerning the Human Understanding (1748) and An Enquiry Concerning the Principles of Morals (1751). These helped spread his ideas and fame, although it is the republished and complete Treatise that I will focus on. The system of ideas outlined therein, with an included essay specifically on Self, will be enough to explore Hume’s thoughts on the subject.

Hume’s theory of knowledge taught that “accurate and just reasoning…is alone able to subvert that abstruse philosophy and metaphysical jargon, which, being mixed up with popular superstition, renders it in a manner impenetrable to careless reasoners, and gives it the air of science and wisdom.” In other words, the philosophies (science and wisdom) of the learned in Hume’s day were abstruse speculations designed to defend superstitions that can’t be justified in logical argument. Hume saw his “accurate and just reasoning” as the only means to attack the grandiose metaphysical speculations of those learned Enlightenment thinkers. His skepticism included more than those metaphysical speculations; he was supremely critical of all tradition and assumption in human reasoning.

The singular most important aspect of Hume’s philosophy may be his confidence in the senses. Again and again throughout his Treatise and other works, Hume restates his skepticism of all that is not in some way connected with our senses. Even the common ideas of God, Causality and Self were rejected by Hume, who claimed to have no sense experience of any of them.

Hume first separated human perceptions into two distinct categories. The “less forcible and lively” perceptions he called thoughts or ideas. The more lively perceptions of the mind Hume labeled Impressions. The impressions are what we see, hear, feel, love or hate. Our ideas are the less lively perceptions that reflect upon our impressions. For example, if I place my hand upon a hot plate and feel the heat, that is an impression. Later, when I go over the experience in my thoughts, I may recall the heat, I may remember the burning pain, but I cannot truly experience the sensation again. My “less-lively” thought occurs only in relation to my “lively” sense data, but while I am having that thought I do not truly experience the sense data again. Perhaps the one assumption Hume did make was that all of these simple ideas (perceptions) are distinct, and independent of one another . Some have claimed this to be the one flaw in his argument, the one assumption he should have examined further; others debate whether Hume