REFLECTION ON DAVID HUME’S CONCEPT OF THE SELF

by Keize Louise Española

In the eighteen years of my life, I never asked myself, not even once, who I really am.
People always tell me to identify my true personal identity because I tend to change my character
base on the people around me, just like a chameleon that blends in with its environment. I even
actually thought that having this kind of personality is a bad thing because in our church we were
always asked “what really is our real identity? Is your real self is when you’re with your family,
your friends, or your church mates?” This questions have been bugging me since then. I, myself
don’t even know who really I am. However, as I study David Hume’s philosophy about the self,
I realized that it’s not really bad to be a person who adapts his personality according to the
situation he is in or the people he is with. Just as Hume claimed, “The self does not have a
continuous existence”, I can be the person who I want to be, whatever the situation or whoever
the person I am with. I can be a son, a friend, a classmate, or even an enemy. I can be either kind
or mean, cheerful or downcast.
As what Hume had stated, “Mankind is nothing but a bundle or collection of different
perception”, I realized that as I grew I’ve developed many personalities. And now I know that
this is the result of encountering and experiencing different perceptions or impressions. I think
that it’s maybe a good thing to discover different personalities so that you can easily adapt and
adjust depending on what the environment, situation, or person requires.