Human Nature as the Foundation of Morality in Gilles Deleuze’s “Empiricism and Subjectivity”

The article examines the moral system presented by Gilles Deleuze in his early work “Empiricism and Subjectivity: An essay on Hume’s Theory of Human Nature”. Based on Hume’s philosophy, Deleuze develops a moral and social system that is grounded in human nature. The article analyzes a coherent system that outlines the principles of human nature in relationship to a theory of knowledge, provides an explanation for moral intuitions and the construction of a moral scheme, and sets principles for the formation of society. In the article, it was revealed how Deleuze understood empiricism and subjectivity and how these concepts change our understanding of human nature. It was demonstrated how the principles of human nature explain our moral intuitions, and why sympathy is the basis for morality and society. It has been reasoned why a person’s disposition for sympathy and his belonging to the community makes moral egoism impossible. In Hume’s philosophy itself one can already find principles for the formation of society based on human sympathy and creativity. According to Deleuze, Hume sees in the social contract and the law a negativity that restrains our freedom and our desires. Therefore, in search of a positive means to form a society, Hume turns to social institutions that are possible due to sympathy. To build a successful society, it is necessary to resort to moral schematism in the form of establishing general rules for all members of society. Already in the work on Hume, we can find several topics that Deleuze is interested in, and which he will develop in the future. First of all, a new anthropology, where much attention is paid to affects and processuality, as well as consideration of society through the creativity of human nature. © 2023, Institute of Philosophy, Russian Academy of Sciences. All rights reserved.