David Hume's Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion were published posthumously in 1779 and are considered one of the most important contributions to the philosophy of religion. Throughout Hume's philosophical career his views on religion were highly controversial and many of his own contemporaries regarded his philosophy as a defence of atheism and irreligion. The Dialogues is Hume's final and his most definitive statement of his views on this subject. In this Critical Guide, leading scholars engage with topics including the argument from intelligent design, the cosmological argument, the problem of evil, religion and morality, miracles, suicide and immortality, and the natural origins and roots of religious belief. The volume updates and expands our critical understanding of this major philosophical work, and will be of interest to a range of readers in philosophy, religion, and the history of ideas.
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Leading scholars investigate a wide range of topics in Hume's Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion.
Introduction; Part I. Hume's Dialogues:
1. Hume and the argument from
design Dan O'Brien;
2. Hume's dialogues and intelligent design Graham Oppy;
3. Hume and strato's ghost: matter, order, and explanation in the dialogues
Thomas Holden;
4. Reiding hume: hume, reid and reformed epistemology Kelly
James Clark;
5. Darwin and Hume's dialogues John Beatty;
6. Against the
cosmological argument: the legacy of Hume's dialogues, Part 9 Angela
Coventry;
7. The misery and wickedness of man Robin Le Poidevin;
8. The
shadow of scepticism: reasoning about religion in Hume's dialogues Kevin
Meeker;
9. Hume's dialogues and the habits of religion Andre C. Willis;
10.
Ambiguity and 'Atheism' in Hume's dialogues Paul Russell; Part II. Other
Writings on Religion:
11. The practical insignificance of natural religion:
Hume's response to butler Jennifer Marui;
12. Weighing up Hume's 'Of
Miracles' Peter Millican;
13. History, natural history, and natural religion
Amyas Merivale;
14. Hume on suicide, superstition and morality Willem
Lemmens; Bibliography; Index.
Paul Russell is Professor Emeritus in Philosophy at the University of British Columbia. He is the author of a number of books including The Riddle of Hume's Treatise (2008) and Recasting Hume and Early Modern Philosophy (2021), and the editor of The Oxford Handbook of Hume (2016).