For my part, when I enter most intimately into what I call myself, I always stumble on some particular perception or other, of heat or cold, light or shade, love or hatred, pain or pleasure. I never can catch myself at any time without a perception, and never can observe anything but the perception. When my perceptions are removed for any time, as by sound sleep, so long am I insensible of myself, and may truly be said not to exist.

–David Hume

David Hume is one of many thinkers who has really helped me work through what I feel to be, more and more, a necessary rejection of a substantial self that endures unchanged through change. More on this to come.

Painting by David Lewis-Baker

Tags:changeDavid HumeDavid Lewis-Bakerdualismempericismskepticismsubstance