The Deleuzian reappropriation of Hume and the transformation of the problem of knowledge

Abstract

This paper aims to offer a reconstruction of the way Gilles Deleuze treated the problem of knowledge in the study which initiated the phase of a history of philosophy: Empiricism and subjectivity. We will try to show that whereas Deleuze subordinates the theory of understanding to a theory of subjectivity far from withdrawn importance to the former it supplies a series of relevant elements to explore the possibilities of a constructivist theory of knowledge keen to the affective and practical dimensions while as the same time oppose to the limitations of the classical philosophies that revolve around consciousness. Thus, the attempt to reprise a global view of the questions and answers regarding knowledge awaken by Deleuze’s reading of Hume will take as a leading idea the assumption of a double positivity: the presence of a positive reality of knowledge located in the existence or ability of knowing and a second positivity in terms of a correlative axiological dimension, referring to the effects of such faculty.