Do you think we have a "self" lying underneath these perceptions and feelings?

Question

Philosopher Hume pointed out that we have no underlying ‘personal identity’ beneath or behind these perceptions and feelings which come and go.

Do you agree that when you look within yourself you do not observe a “self” in addition to the perceptions and feelings that you observe within yourself?

If you agree that you do not observe your “self” in this way, should you conclude (with Hume) that you do not have an underlying ‘personal identity’ but that you are simply the “stream” of perceptions and feelings that you observe within yourself?

Answer 1

Just because I don't perceive it, doesn't mean it's not there.
If you heard a fixed pitch from birth, you would not recognize it,.

But personal identity is a joke anyway.
There's nothing perfectly identifiable over time.
Even a continuity of mental states... it totally breaks down when we consider cases of duplication and fusion.

Answer 2

Emm... we start with nothing!? Hume is wrong. But how could he know about things like genetic proclivities for this and that. I feel bad about picking on a dead guy who didn't have the benefit of the human genome project to support or refute his observations...
Yes, we are all individuals. We were BORN individuals, at the very least. Hume also seems to have been right about the contexts within which we live dictating our attitudes to a great extent. I'm just saying that our perceptions and feelings are not STRICTLY results of context.

Answer 3

I do think there is a self. The self is eternal; your question really seems to be directed towards the existence of a soul, and in such a way, it deals with nihilism.
If you believe that you exist, then there must be something there underneath feelings and perceptions. Obviously, there has to be something underneath that's reacting, that's creating the perceptions and feelings. If not, what are we? A mere product of external forces? If that's the case, where did those forces come from? Does it all come down to one?
There are too many questions there to answer, too many questions raised by such a statement. It's all based on supposition. The answer to your question basically comes down to this: do you believe that you exist, or not?

Answer 4

When you look in the mirror you recognize yourself separately and apart from anything else. Why is this? It is because you can only see the world from your point of view. Since you have a point of view, you must have a "self". Exactly what that self is, is another matter.

My personal opinion is that the "self" is a conversation that exists because we are a community of symbiotic organisms that we call our body. This conversation is carried on by chemical exchanges between the body organisms and the brain where these exchanges are organized and synthesized into thoughts.

Answer 5

Hume was an idiot. We all have an identity, a self awareness.
In some people this awareness is quite acute, in others it merely
exists.

Which are you.

Answer 6

I disagree with Hume.
I propose that there are 3 'selves'.

The self that is manifested from the impressions of others. One's social identity.

The self that you act like, and believe that One is. The dominant self that corresponds to One's regular social and emotional behavior.

And the self that lies within, who One really is, whose nature surfaces when subject to extreme circumstances. When driven by anxiety, fear, rage, grief.

Answer 7

no you don't...

some perceive their great lies hidden from others and only they can see or feel it.. delusional.......double minded?

bible says a double minded person is a hypocrite.....and dangerous