Deleuze, Hume, Empiricism

The title of his book on Hume is 'Empiricism and Subjectivity', but Deleuze perhaps unwittingly demonstrates how 'Empiricism' is an inadequate classification of Hume's theory of experience. The latter is usually classified as such as a reference to the principle that all experience is derived from sense impressions. However, 'Empiricism' is an Epistemological category, and, as has been previously discussed, Deleuze interprets Hume as holding that Doing, not Knowing, is the fundamental character of Experience. For example, it is not impressions, in general, that are revealed as the basis of Experience in Hume's theory, but one impression, in particular--Pleasure. As Hume's formulation 'Reason is the slave of the Passions' expresses, cognitive operations are at the service of the pursuit of Pleasure, e. g. the 'cause-effect' connection is an abstraction from what is more fundamentally a 'means-end' structure. Hence, on Deleuze's reading , a more adequate classification of Hume is a Moral category--'Sentimentalist', if not 'Hedonist'.