Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion

by HUME, DAVID

• ISBN13: 9780879755270
• ISBN10: 087975527X
• Edition: Revised
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 1989-05-01
• Publisher: Prometheus
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Summary

Humankind has pondered many mysteries, but few more enticing than the existence of a divine creator who is said to have set the universe in motion. Imitating the well-known style of Platonic dialogues, the relentless inquirer and empiricist David Hume assembles a group to discuss the existence of God, his divine nature, his attributes, and the point of his creation. How do we come to have knowledge of God? Who has the burden of proof with respect to these matters of intense religious significance, and what sort of proof might gain universal assent? Can one argue from the orderliness of the universe to the conclusion that it must have had a purposeful creator at its helm? Hume has captured the nature of this intense debate in a classic work that has stood the test of time.

Table of Contents

Preface	p. v
Preface to Second Edition	p. vii
Editions, Reprints, and Translations of the Dialogues	p. x
Text of This Edition	p. xi
Abbreviations	p. xii
Introduction	p. 1
Hume's Relations to His Calvinist Environment	p. 1
Hume's Views Regarding Religion in General	p. 9
Hume's Reasons for Retaining the Terms 'God' and 'Religion' in Defining His Own Positions as Bearing on the Argument of the Dialogues	p. 25
Hume's Argument Against Miracles, and His Criticism of the Argument from Design, in the Enquiry	p. 45
the Argument of the Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion	p. 57
An Account of My Last Interview with David Hume, Esq.1	p. 76
Appendix B1 Bayle on Strato's 'Atheism'	p. 80
Evidence Bearing on the Times of Composition and Revision of the Dialogues, and on Hume's Arrangements for Their Post- Humous Publication	p. 87
A Critical Analysis of the Main Argument of the Dialogues, with Some Explanatory Notes1	p. 97
Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion	p. 125
Supplement	p. 229
Index of Proper Names	p. 249
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