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Essay / Research Paper Abstract
This 5 page paper examines Hume's Of Personal Identity section in A Treatise of Human Nature. His ideas about personal identity are compared and contrasted to that of Rene Descartes. Bibliography lists 2 sources.
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5 pages (~225 words per page)
File: RT13_SA526Hum.rtf
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conscious of what we call our self; that we feel its existence and its continuance in existence; and are certain, beyond the evidence of a demonstration, both of its perfect
identity and simplicity" (Hume, 2005). Here, it is suggested that many people think of themselves as who they are. They have an identity and this identity is invested in the
past and who they have been all of their lives. Much goes to what they have done instead of what lies within. Hume goes on and explains that identity is
not what it seems. Hume (2005) writes: "If perceptions are distinct existences, they form a whole only by being connected together. But no connexions among distinct existences are ever discoverable
by human understanding. We only feel a connexion or determination of the thought, to pass from one object to another. It follows, therefore, that the thought alone finds personal identity,
when reflecting on the train of past perceptions, that compose a mind, the ideas of them are felt to be connected together, and naturally introduce each other." The idea that
perception and consciousness matters when forming identity is significant. Hume claims that people do not consciously hold a particular identity. Rather, identity or the perception of identity changes through time.
For example, someone grows up and has certain experiences and perceptions and then the same person grows up and has different experiences. A good example is George Bush who was
supposedly a man who abused substances a great deal. He then had another life after he married and was a business man. Later, he would enter political life and become
president of the United States. Who is George Bush? His identity changes over time. No one is born a particular way with one set of perceptions or one particular identity.
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