Routledge philosophy guidebook to hume on religion

Book Cover......Page 1
Title......Page 4
Contents......Page 5
Preface......Page 10
A note on the edition of the Dialogues used......Page 14
Abbreviations......Page 15
Introduction: Hume's life, his philosophy of religion, and his influence......Page 18
Hume on religion......Page 24
Hume's philosophy of religion......Page 25
Hume's influence......Page 38
An overview of the Dialogues......Page 40
The Dialogues in outline......Page 41
Natural religion and religion in practice......Page 49
The scope and legitimacy of natural religion (Prologue, and Dialogues, Part I)......Page 54
The limits of reason......Page 56
Cleanthes' first design argument (Dialogues, Part II)......Page 70
Cleanthes' first design argument......Page 71
The criteria of good analogical arguments......Page 81
Philo's criticism and Cleanthes' rebuttal......Page 85
Cleanthes' second design argument: the 'irregular' argument (Dialogues, Part III)......Page 94
The 'irregular' design argument......Page 95
Are basic religious beliefs natural beliefs?......Page 103
'A mind like the human' (Dialogues, Parts IV and V)......Page 112
Mysticism, anthropomorphism, scepticism (Dialogues, Part IV)......Page 114
Like effects, like causes (Dialogues, Part V)......Page 126
Philo's concession of design......Page 133
Naturalism and scepticism (Dialogues, Parts VI, VII, and VIII)......Page 136
The hypothesis of living matter and an inherent principle of order (Dialogues, Part VI)......Page 137
Ranking four causal principles: reason, instinct, generation, vegetation (Dialogues, Part VII)......Page 144
'The old Epicurean hypothesis' (Dialogues, Part VIII)......Page 154
Further weakening of natural religion (Dialogues, Part IX)......Page 164
Demea's case for a necessary first cause......Page 165
Philo's naturalistic hypothesis again......Page 178
The problem of evil (Dialogues, Parts X and XI)......Page 180
Theism's problem of evil (Dialogues, Part X)......Page 181
Cleanthes' response to the inference problem: limited theism (Dialogues, Part XI)......Page 196
Hume's articulation of the basic presuppositions in the standard debate on the problem of evil (Dialogues, Part XI)......Page 202
The hypothesis of indifference (Dialogues, Part XI)......Page 204
'True religion' (Dialogues, Part XII)......Page 210
Appearance and reality in Philo's concession of design in nature......Page 211
True religion and vulgar superstition......Page 218
The five 'ifs'......Page 222
Scepticism, deism, naturalism, irony......Page 223
In conclusion: faith and reason......Page 229
Afterword: where is Hume in Hume's Dialogues?......Page 230
Who speaks for Hume?......Page 231
Does Hume conceal his thinking in the Dialogues?......Page 233
Bibliography......Page 236
Index......Page 240