Resumo

GUERRERO, Leandro. Metáforas del sujeto en el Tratado de la Naturaleza Humana de David Hume. Cuad. Sur, Filos. [online]. 2010, n.39, pp. 97-116. ISSN 2362-2989.

This paper studies the two most important metaphors used by Hume in his account on the self (Treatise of Human Nature, Book 1, Part 4, Section 6) and elaborates upon them the features of two general lines of interpretation concerning his theory of the subject. On one hand, the standard reading brings attention specially on Hume's inconsistent "bundle" of perceptions theory of the self, which has its reflex over the "mind as it were a theatre" metaphor. On the other hand, more recent interpretations have given more importance to Hume's claim that the mind is properly understood as a "system" of perceptions, and have estimated as much more accurate and precise his other metaphor: the "mind as a Commonwealth" metaphor. Nevertheless, being that both metaphors and thesis of the self are included in the same section, both interpretations fail hermeneutically in taking only one of these aspects as relevant. We offer here an interpretation that holds together consistently the two claims, through an exam of the opposition between the metaphors based on the context in which Hume makes use of each one of them. In doing so, we show they are actually two sides of the same coin, that is, that they are necessary to Hume's destructive/constructive double argument developed in that section.

Palavras-chave : Self; Mind; Metaphor.