David Hume's Theory Of No Self

“What is the self?” has been and argument that many philosophers have attempted to answer. For David Hume there was no true answer because for him the self simply does not exist. Hume took an unprecedented approach to the self, but he did not stop there. Hume, the historian, told the tale of how we arrive at the idea of the self with major implications of how we as beings function.
David Hume was a philosopher concerned understanding humans and how we derive information and knowledge. He was one of the first to try to develop a theory of philosophy of mind, and he especially focused on personal identity. Hume believed that self was just a fiction that we have created to describe our impression and perception (526). In order to make it more clear, we have to go Hume’s problem of induction. Hume focuses in on cause and effect in An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding. He succinctly states “…That causes and effect are discoverable, not by reason but by experience…”(543). Because human rely so much on cause and effect Hume was interested in seeing if cause and effect could be counted as true knowledge. However, a lot of times we use …show more content…
Descartes argues that man has reason and is therefore able to think and think rationally. Hume’s theory, for Descartes, would probably lower man to the level of animals as many philosophers at that time believed that animals only have a base nature reacting and acting towards their environment requiring no rationality. Descartes would probably argue with Hume on the meaning of the self and personal identity. For Descartes, Hume is wrong in the fact that because of our ability to formulate ideas from our own mind is significant proof that Hume cannot deny. Hume cannot refute that we can have consistent and coherent thoughts that follow each other often. Descartes would simply put that if you can think about these ideas and emotion the self is