Jefferson S.

Backong

Hume and Empiricism: Empiricism and Subjectivity

Chapter Five

Our mind is not a subject but rather the storage for collection of impressions and images
and different perceptions. When our mind perceives an idea, it does not only perceive a single
idea, the idea originally perceived is multiplied into other different ideas with the intention of
attaining a certain goal. The ideas that branched out from the original idea are separated and
distinguished from one another which make it different from each other. How does our mind
understand or perceive an idea? It Is a given fact that our mind possesses innate ideas that
makes up our impressions of a certain subject so when a subject is given to our mind, the mind
calls upon its stored collection of perceptions, memories or experiences in order to understand
the subject given. The ideas in our mind are not merely piece of thoughts but they are subjects
which pursues a goal; the goal of realizing a means to an end because an idea is generally
useless if it does not realize or achieve a goal.
Subjectivity is defined by the movement through which it is develop 1. Subject is that
which develops itself2. In this sense, the subject that is presented in our mind is defined by its
movement of development. Without the subject transcending itself, there can be no
subjectivity. An idea is planted in the mind in order for it to develop and create different set of
perceptions and impressions, images for without this development, there can be no empiricism.

1
Empiricism and Subjectivity, p. 85
2
Ibid