Hume Paper
Doug Quail changes his personal characteristics, but his perceptions and mental ideas make him the same person. A person's identity is based on the way in which he or she perceives self- impressions or encounters certain experiences. For example, a person might interpret an impression of something completely different from someone else. David Hume believes that nobody has a personal identity. Instead, he believes that each person is made up of his or her own self-impressions. Hume believes a person's self-impression is acquired either by someone else or by that person's own idea of his or herself. If you were to ask a random person who he or she is, you would most likely get an answer that would involve some kind of impression or idea that the person has grown up hearing or believing. Furthermore, it is the way that a certain person perceives these self-inflicted impressions that makes him who he or she is. It is these perceptions and mental thought processes that make Doug Quail the same person he was in the beginning of the story. The main character of the story, Doug Quail, starts out in life as a secret agent/assassin who works undercover for the government on Mars. After he has completed
Hume's account that all ideas come from impressions and unless you have an impression you have no idea seems quite true. Most ideas a person has of something comes from some type of impression it had on that person. However, personal identity is the way in which a person perceives these impressions. It is your way of thinking, analyzing, and desiring that makes up your own personal identity. In Doug Quail's case it was his desires and his own perceived impressions that made him the same person he was in the beginning. One might ask, how you perceive an impression? Hume claims that no one has a personal identity unless you are able to see yourself as an abstract object. Further more, Hume believes that all ideas come from impressions, and a person has no ideas unless that person has an impression. He believes that once you have impressions of yourself you no longer have a personal identity but rather an idea of yourself based on your impression. Hume believes you see yourself as doing something or you see yourself as a referent. For example, you see yourself playing sports or being a good student. Hume believes it is these impressions or ideas that change each time you experience something new. However, people perceive things completely different from one another, and it is the way a person perceives these impressions and experiences, which
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Approximate Word count = 918
Approximate Pages = 4 (250 words per page double spaced)
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