visualize streets of gold.”
“He was very clever. What about Descartes having a clear and distinct idea of
God?”
“Hume had an answer to that too. Let’s say we imagine God as an infinitely
‘intelligent, wise, and good being.’ We have thus a ‘complex idea’ that consists of
something infinitely intelligent, something infinitely wise, and something infinitely
good. If we had never known intelligence, wisdom, and goodness, we would never
have such an idea of God. Our idea of God might also be that he is a ‘severe but just
Father’—that is to say, a concept made up of ‘severity’,’justice,’ and ‘father.’ Many
critics of religion since Hume have claimed that such ideas of God can be associated
with how we experienced our own father when we were little. It was said that the idea
of a father led to the idea of a ‘heavenly father.’ “
“Maybe that’s true, but I have never accepted that God had to be a man.
Sometimes my mother calls God ‘Godiva,’ just to even things up.”
“Anyway, Hume opposed all thoughts and ideas that could not be traced back to
corresponding sense perceptions. He said he wanted to ‘dismiss all this meaningless
nonsense which long has dominated metaphysical thought and brought it into
disrepute.’
“But even in everyday life we use complex ideas without stopping to wonder
whether they are valid. For example, take the question of T—or the ego. This was the
very basis of Descartes’s philosophy. It was the one clear and distinct perception that
the whole of his philosophy was built on.”
“I hope Hume didn’t try to deny that I am me. He’d be talking off the top of his
head.”
“Sophie, if there is one thing I want this course to teach you, it’s not to jump to
conclusions.”
“Sorry. Go on.”
“No, why don’t you use Hume’s method and analyze what you perceive as your
‘ego.’ “
“First I’d have to figure out whether the ego is a single or a complex idea.”
“And what conclusion do you come to?”
“I really have to admit that I feel quite complex. I’m very volatile, for instance.
And I have trouble making up my mind about things. And I can both like and dislike
the same people.”
“In other words, the ‘ego concept’ is a ‘complex idea.’ “
“Okay. So now I guess I must figure out if I have had a corresponding ‘complex
impression’ of my own ego. And I guess I have. I always had, actually.”
“Does that worry you?”
“I’m very changeable. I’m not the same today as I was when I was four years
old. My temperament and how I see myself alter from one minute to the next. I can
suddenly feel like I am a ‘new person.’ “
“So the feeling of having an unalterable ego is a false perception. The
perception of the ego is in reality a long chain of simple impressions that you have
never experienced simultaneously. It is ‘nothing but a bundle or collection of different
perceptions, which succeed one another with an inconceivable rapidity, and are in a
perpetual flux and movement,’ as Hume expressed it. The mind is ‘a kind of theater,
where several perceptions successively make their appearance; pass, re-pass, slide
away, and mingle in an infinite variety of postures and situations.’ Hume pointed out
that we have no underlying ‘personal identity’ beneath or behind these perceptions
and feelings which come and go. It is just like the images on a movie screen. They