The Bundle Theory of Self

“I may venture to affirm of the rest of mankind, that they are nothing but a bundle or collection of different perceptions, which succeed each other with an inconceivable rapidity, and are in a perpetual flux and movement.”

— David Hume

David Hume (1711-1776), one of the most significant Western philosophers, believed that talking about the self doesn't make sense.

He contended that we cannot experience the self concretely. His theory, known as the Bundle Theory of Self, is considered one of the most significant ideas in the history of philosophy and has far-reaching implications for our understanding of personal identity, ethics, and even death.

The persistence problem

Hume was a philosopher who believed that ideas that don't have anything to do with real things are meaningless. This idea comes from his belief that people only gain knowledge through their senses, which goes all the way back to the empiricism of Aristotle.

The Persistence Problem is a challenge that philosophers have been trying to solve for a long time. It's all about figuring out what makes someone the same person over time. Is it things like how they look, their personality, what they remember, their body, or their soul?

For Hume, none of these could explain how we stay the same person. He thought that we are just a bunch of experiences and perceptions, with no “real” self or soul to hold it all together.

If we're not a single self or soul, what are we?

Hume thought that we are actually just a collection of different perceptions that are connected in certain ways. Our mind is made up of these perceptions and together they make us a thinking being.

It's the bundle of perceptions that makes us who we are. However, it's important to note that even though these perceptions make up our mind, they don't belong to it. Hume thought that this difference was really important.

Personal identity

Hume believed that the self is not a simple, unchanging thing that stays the same over time. This idea has big implications for how we think about ourselves and others. It leads to important questions about when we become a person, like in the case of abortion.

It also makes us wonder if we continue to exist when we lose our mental abilities at the end of our lives. What happens if we take drugs or drink alcohol? Are we still the same person then? And, how much of our past can we really remember?

Even on a material level, the cells that made up our bodies as children have all been replaced. There is nothing in us now that existed a long time ago or will exist in the future.

The impact of Hume's theory on death (and life!)

Hume’s theory has a significant impact on how we perceive death. According to Hume, everything we have now will cease to exist long before we die. The person we are today will not be the same person in the future.

This means that when we die, it is not the end of one singular thing; instead, it is just parts of things that were together for a while, like a car that is broken down into its individual parts.

The idea that death is just a natural part of life and that everything is impermanent can be a liberating feeling. It suggests that the key to eternal life may be to live in the present moment and cherish what we have now. 

In summary

David Hume's Bundle Theory of Self revolutionized our understanding of personal identity, ethics, and death. It challenges traditional notions of what constitutes a person and raises important questions about our existence. However, Hume's theory also offers a liberating perspective that encourages us to appreciate the present moment.

For a deeper discussion and some practical implications for how you might live your life, listen to Episode 24 of the Talk Doesn’t Cook Rice podcast.