self/freedom

Hume and self

I believe David Hume does indeed have valid arguments that we are nothing but a bundle of perceptions. He argues that we what call our self, and our identity is an illusion we formulate. What we call identity is actually a collection of perceptions. When we retreat into ourselves what we find are peceptions/feelings such as cold, hot, love, hate, sadness, anger, pain. Hume is saying that we never find any entity that could be labeled ‘self’. I feel that this is where his strongest argument is, because it is difficult to prove otherwise. When we search inside ourselves we really only find our feelings and perceptions. Hume says it is almost impossible to think of a moment in time when we aren’t feeling something. All of his points are difficult to deny or to get around. Hume gives us the analogy of the theatre. We view things as if in a theatre, and experience a variety of individual perceptions in such rapid succession that it appears to be a whole. They interact, flutter in and out, mingle in a never ending stream of activity creating the illusion of identity. This comparison of the human experience to the theatre gives a probable way Hume’s theory could be carried out, that a multitude of perceptions could act so fast, and work so cohesively that it appears seamless to us.

allegory of the cave

Plato compares the average human existence to that of a few individuals who live in a cave. These people in the cave perceive life through shadows that interact on a wall in front of them. So they do not see the world and the forms that exist in it but only shadows of them. Everything they think to be true is actually a lie. If they were to see the shadow of a hat, and recognize it as a hat, they still do not know what a hat actually is. Plato is saying that in language, names we have for objects are names of things we actually can’t see. We can only grasp these forms in our minds. The prisoners mistake appearance for reality. Plato says this is as close to seeing reality as humans get. When one of the prisoners is freed, they find their way out into the sun. At first they are angry, their eyes are hurt by the sun . But their eyes quickly acclimate.They see the world for what it really is. They see that the sun is the source of seasons, time, and that is a steward to all things that visible.The sun allows them to see the things themselves rather than shadows of things. The sun in this case is allegorical for enlightenment and truth. The way to become enlightened, and to see the “sun”, is to try to come to terms with these forms in our minds. Plato is saying we need to escape from the cave that humanity lives in and truly try to understand the world for what it really is.

blog section 1

Plato explains that when we believe we are learning something, we are actually remembering something we have learned in another lifetime. The idea is that e don’t learn, we remember. The example he gives is one with the boy and the mathematics problem best demonstrates how this could be possible. The boy is uneducated and is asked a problem relating to the are of a box. Instead of telling the boy how to double the area of the square, he lets the boy teach himself. Through asking the right questions to the boy, the boy finds the answer on his own. The boy did not know the answer when first asked but through questioning he came up with the correct answer. This demonstrates that the knowledge is actually inside of him. Plato argues that we do not learn things, instead we remember them. Plato says that this knowledge is already inside of us, we gain this knowledge in our previous lives. Over our many lives and experiences we become wiser. Plato says this is true because individuals can come up with the answers to questions on their own, in fields they know nothing about. How else would this be possible? He proposes the answer to where our instincts and innate feelings come from. Also one can not prove that these previous lives did not occur, there is no way of knowing that.