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Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion is a philosophical work written by the Scottish philosopher David Hume. Through dialogue, three fictional characters named Demea, Philo, and Cleanthes debate the nature of God's existence. While all three agree that a god exists, they differ sharply in opinion on God's nature or attributes and how, or if, humankind can come to knowledge of a deity.
In the Dialogues, Hume's characters debate a number of arguments for the existence of God, and arguments whose proponents believe through which we may come to know the nature of God. Such topics debated include the argument from design -- for which Hume uses a house -- and whether there is more suffering or good in the world (argument from evil).
Hume started writing the Dialogues in 1750 but did not complete them until 1776, shortly before his death. They are based partly on Cicero's De Natura Deorum. The Dialogues were published posthumously in 1779, originally with neither the author's nor the publisher's name.
[edit] Characters
- Pamphilus is a youth present during the dialogues. In a letter, he reconstructs the conversation of Demea, Philo, and Cleanthes in detail for his friend Hermippus. He serves as the narrator throughout the piece. At the end of the Dialogues he believes that Cleanthes offered the strongest arguments. However, this could be out of loyalty to his teacher, as this does not seem to reflect Hume's own views on the topic. When other pieces on religion by Hume are taken into consideration, it may be noted that they all end with (apparently) ironic statements reaffirming the truth of christian religious views. While the irony may be less readily available in the Dialogues, this would suggest a similar reading of this work's ending.[1](Cicero used a similar technique in his Dialogues).
- Cleanthes is a theist—"an exponent of orthodox empiricism"[2]—who presents a version of the teleological argument for God's existence using the deductive paradigm.
- Philo, according to the predominant view among scholars, "probably represents a viewpoint similar to Hume's own."[3] Philo attacks Cleanthes's views on anthropomorphism and teleology; while not going as far as to deny the existence of god, Philo asserts that human reason is wholly inadequate to make any assumptions about the divine, whether through a priori reasoning or observation of nature.
- Demea "defends the Cosmological argument and philosophical theism..."[2] He believes that instead of reason, people should base beliefs concerning God's nature through fideism. Demea rejects Cleanthes's "natural religion" for being too anthropomorphic. Demea objects to the abandonment of the a priori arguments by Philo and Cleanthes (both of whom are empiricists). He perceives Philo to be "accepting an extreme form of skepticism."[2]
[edit] References
[edit] External links
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