Intro to PhilosophyHume Paper - How Hume's Cluster Theory of the Self Affects His Reasoning Concerning Personal Identity and morality?Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”?Get the original essayScottish philosopher David Hume is notable in history for his skepticism and dedication to his reasoning, as well as for his controversies well known about many of the metaphysical ideas of his predecessor. speculations. Hume was a self-proclaimed skeptic, a man who was always looking for concrete evidence. This passion for the truth led many people to believe that he was an atheist, even though he was staunchly agnostic. Hume is best known for his bundle theory of the self, a philosophy which emphasizes that "the self is only a collection of impressions and that identity is a mental act and not a property of things." In short, he believed that we are who we are because we see ourselves as such, not because we actually are. This rigid belief system led him to have different views on personal identity and morality than other philosophers of his time such as Locke and Berkeley. Hume believed that personal immortality was a meaningless concept. He argued that it is impossible to have a persistent self if every time we look at ourselves our perceptions are different. His argument applied to the afterlife by saying that "any change in a thing (such as bodily death) changes its identity." His overall theory of the self led Hume to believe that there was no real “self,” but simply a set of perceptions. This led him to mentally reduce people to just a list of simple characteristics that were perceptions and perhaps ideas. and he sincerely believed that we have no persistent self, only a mental laziness that allows us to ignore the truth of things. His position on morality was similar to that of immortality: strictly based on facts. He called for the reform of moral philosophy, rejecting abstract science and pushing for the application of the experimental method to ethics. Keep in mind: this is just a sample. Get a personalized article from our expert writers now. Get a Custom Essay In Hume's bundle theory of the self, we are guided to view our thoughts and perceptions as selves, beings that exist over time and do not change from day to day. No matter how we turn our observations, we can never record anything beyond feelings, sensations, or impressions, and this is what Hume insists the self is made of. His theory led him to view personal identity and morality as a matter beyond direct control, since we are in reality nothing more than a collection of thoughts and feelings. Works Cited Hume, D. (1739). A treatise on human nature. Oxford University Press. Allison, H.E. (2008). Hume's theory of personal identity. The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Retrieved from https://plato.stanford.edu/archives/win2008/entries/hume-identity/Garrett, D. (2015). Personal identity and self as narrative: theoretical and therapeutic dimensions. Journal of Constructivist Psychology, 28(4), 323-336. doi:10.1080/10720537.2014.977168 Harris, H.A. (2013). Hume on the identity of persons. Journal of the History of Philosophy, 51(4), 605-633. doi:10.1353/hph.2013.0063Jenkins, J.J. (2010). Hume, personal identity and the bundle theory. European Journal of Philosophy,, 49(2),200949214