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...
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| Format: | article |
| Status: | Published version |
| Publication Date: | 2023 |
| Country: | Perú |
| Institution: | Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú |
| Repository: | Revistas - Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú |
| Language: | Spanish |
| OAI Identifier: | oai:ojs.pkp.sfu.ca:article/27917 |
| Online Access: | http://revistas.pucp.edu.pe/index.php/arete/article/view/27917 |
| Access Level: | Open access |
| Keyword: | Mind Matter Substantialist metaphysics Causality Analogy with nature Mente Materia Metafísica sustancialista Causalidad Analogía con la naturaleza |
| Summary: | 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. |
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