Wednesday, January 26, 2011

Deleuze, Hume, Kant, Purposiveness

According to Deleuze's interpretation, Hume's theory of Experience as a pursuit of ends integrates both the subject of experience and its environing world. Deleuze terms the thought of the agreement between the internal and external dimensions of Experience 'Purposiveness', a notion plainly derived from Kant. However, this reference to Kant is perplexing, because, for Kant, 'Purposiveness' primarily denotes the thought that observed phenomena are intentional--a thought which, of greatest significance to Kant's system, grounds his concept of Deservedness, i. e. that happiness is not circumstantial but the effect of a intentional reward for Virtue. In contrast, Deleuze's use of the term is more directly evocative of a Kantian principle that he asserts Hume does not subscribe to, and that is antithetical to Empiricism--that the unity of Experience is, at the same time, the unity of the objects of Experience. Such inaccuracies in Deleuze's interpretation of Hume suggest that it is more properly a development of his own concept of 'Empiricism' than either, say, 'A Humean Response to Kant', or 'Hume: Transition From Locke to Kant'.

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