Abstract

CALVENTE, Sofía. David Hume on Materialism. arete [online]. 2023, vol.35, n.2, pp.275-299.  Epub Dec 11, 2023. ISSN 1016-913X.  http://dx.doi.org/10.18800/arete.202302.002.

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.

Keywords : mind; matter; substantialist metaphysics; causality; analogy with nature.

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