David Hume on Materialism

During the 17th and 18th centuries, an intense debate concerning materialism took place. This paper aims to describe David Hume’s position within this debate. I claim that, even though Hume rejects substantialist metaphysics to focus on the study of perceptions, he defends a position concerning the...

Descripción completa

Detalles Bibliográficos
Autor: Calvente, Sofía
Tipo de recurso: artículo
Estado:Versión publicada
Fecha de publicación:2023
País:Perú
Institución:Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú
Repositorio:Revistas - Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú
Idioma:español
OAI Identifier:oai:ojs.pkp.sfu.ca:article/27917
Acceso en línea:http://revistas.pucp.edu.pe/index.php/arete/article/view/27917
Access Level:acceso abierto
Palabra clave:Mind
Matter
Substantialist metaphysics
Causality
Analogy with nature
Mente
Materia
Metafísica sustancialista
Causalidad
Analogía con la naturaleza
Descripción
Sumario:During the 17th and 18th centuries, an intense debate concerning materialism took place. This paper aims to describe David Hume’s position within this debate. I claim that, even though Hume rejects substantialist metaphysics to focus on the study of perceptions, he defends a position concerning the relationship between mind and matter. However, this position is rather complex to reconstruct since it is not explicitly stated in the texts edited during Hume’s life. I propose to define it as a restricted materialism since, regarding the nature of mind, Hume discards both the materialist and the immaterialist positions; although concerning the causes of thought he comes close to materialist positions by using arguments based on experience and the analogy with nature.