PERSONAL IDENTITY
Buddha/Hume said there is no such thing as minds.
Buddha says SELF=SOUL
-and that the mind is a set of ever-changing processes, but there is no self(soul there.
Hume says the mind is just a bundle of perceptions and are divided thus: 1.)impressions (sensory related) 2.)ideas (copies of sensory perceptions)
Example: You see a tree (impression)Later you remember the tree(an idea of a tree.
Hume essentially is an idealist saying that only mental things exist.
Compare these two with Descartes whose famous words "I think therefore..." ie: thinking requires a thinker or a thinking substance.
Buddha would say that just because there is thinking going on doesn't mean there is a "thinker" but there is a process going on.
Here, Borrowdale read from Palmer pp.270-271"for my part..."
Speaking of Hume...
Locke said there is a material world and there is cause and effect and ther is an external world.
Berkeley says there are minds and ideas and cause and effect but no external world.
Hume just has ideas, says there is cause and effect but there is no material world, no mind.
Locke says that it is memory and perception (personality or character)that makes you the person you are...
Kant and Frondizi(not required reading) these two say that the way memory, perception and judgement all work together proves substantial self (unitary consciousness)
FREE WILL...DO WE HAVE IT?
A determinist would say,"yes.
Do we have control over all our beliefs?
Spoke of Calvin, of Martin Luther being more of a Calvinist than Calvin.
IF GOD HAS NO SIN, DOES HE HAVE FREE WILL?
Behaviorism- BF Skinner. Behavior is a response to stimulus determined by the nature of the person and the stimulus.
Skinners Theory is modeled on Pavlov's dog theory.
Dog-bell-food
Dog-bell-food
over and over again...
-eventually you can ring a bell and dog will salivate,thinking it's going to get food.
Freud. argument of the unconsciousness...your unconscious mind makes the decisions-the conscious mind is driven by the unconscious mind- which is in place by the time you are 5 years old.