Summary Of Hume's Book 'An Enquiry Into Human Understanding'

In Humes book, “An Enquiry Into Human Understanding”, he defines his theory of the consciousness as two types of perceptions; impressions and thoughts or ideas. He explains how these impressions have sensations (external impressions) and feelings (internal impressions), that both have an impact on our thoughts and ideas that develop in our mind. Hume claims that all ideas are a posteriori, “after experience”, which means we cannot have these thoughts and ideas without having impressions, or experience. These perceptions that we acquire are all that is present to the mind, whether we are sensing, thinking, or reflecting. Impressions are those perceptions that have most “force and violence”, where as ideas are the fainter perceptions we have whenever we reflect on other perceptions. “Perception itself isn't an image, rather it is an awareness of an image.” Hume claims that when we experience a particular object or event, that we then have a sense of

He says this because he believes that all ideas are ultimately derived from impressions. Hume claims that the “self” must be constant and persisting, and yet all knowledge is derived from impressions, which are non-persisting. Therefore, we don’t really have knowledge of a “self”, according to Hume. Hume conveys in his excerpt that we are just a bundle of perceptions. He defines the identity of a person as nothing more than the entirety of that persons perception, which are always in a “perpetual flux”, or in a state of constant change. There is never a time during our conscious life where our perceptions stay constant through time, we are only aware of our bundle of perceptions and experiences. There is no impression of the “self” that connects our particular impressions together. In other words, we can never be directly aware of ourselves, only of what we are experiencing at any given