Hume's Critique of Religion: 'Sick Men's Dreams' (The New Synthese Historical Library Book 72)

In this volume, authors Alan Bailey and Dan O'Brien examine the full import of David Hume's arguments and the context of the society in which his work came to fruition. They analyze the nuanced nature of Hume's philosophical discourse and provide an informed look into his position on the possible content and rational justification of religious belief. The authors first detail the pressures and forms of repression that confronted any 18th century thinker wishing to challenge publicly the truth of Christian theism. From there, they offer an overview of Hume's writings on religion, paying particular attention to the inter-relationships between the various works. They show that Hume's writings on religion are best seen as an artfully constructed web of irreligious argument that seeks to push forward a radical outlook, one that only emerges when the attention shifts from the individual sections of the web to its overall structure and context. Even though there is no explicit denial in any of Hume's published writings or private correspondence of the existence of God, the implications of his arguments often seem to point strongly towards atheism. David Hume was one of the leading British critics of Christianity and all forms of religion at a time when public utterances or published writings denying the truth of Christianity were liable to legal prosecution. His philosophical and historical writings offer a sustained and remarkably open critique of religion that is unmatched by any previous author writing in English. Yet, despite Hume's widespread reputation amongst his contemporaries for extreme irreligion, the subtle and measured manner in which he presents his position means that it remains far from clear how radical his views actually were. Read more... Abstract: Hume's Critique of Religion: 'Sick Men's Dreams' Read more... Preface 6 Acknowledgements 12 References and Principal Texts 14 Contents 16 Chapter 1: Hume the Infidel 20 1.1 Hume’s Eighteenth-Century Reputation 20 1.2 Ambiguities and Reservations 26 1.3 Some Modern Interpretations 30 1.4 The Way Forward 39 Chapter 2: Blasphemy, Dissimulation, and Humean Prudence 42 2.1 Persecution and Prosecution 42 2.2 Humean Prudence 50 2.3 Dissimulation Unmasked 57 2.4 Some Provisional Conclusions 64 Chapter 3: Hume’s Writings on Religion 65 3.1 Approaching the Texts 65 3.2 A Succinct Overview of Hume’s Writings 72 Chapter 4: Hume on the Intelligibility of Religious Discourse 83 4.1 Impressions, Ideas, and Linguistic Meaning 83 4.2 Talking About God 87 4.3 Relative Ideas and the Illusion of Piety 92 Chapter 5: Epistemological Scepticism and Religious Belief 96 5.1 Hume’s Scepticism About Justification 96 5.2 Epistemological Scepticism in the Dialogues 101 5.3 Some Benefits of Mitigated Scepticism 107 Chapter 6: That Simple and Sublime Argument 112 6.1 Necessary Existence 113 6.2 The Necessary Existence of the Universe 114 6.3 Causes, Parts and Wholes 116 Chapter 7: The Design Argument and Empirical Evidence of God’s Existence 120 7.1 The Nature of the Argument 120 7.2 Some Initial Criticisms of the Design Argument 124 7.3 Voices from the Clouds and Living Libraries 130 7.4 Disanalogies Between Human Minds and Divine Intelligence 133 7.5 Non-analogical Forms of the Design Argument 138 Chapter 8: The Problem of Evil 142 8.1 The Logical Argument from Evil 143 8.2 Theodicy 146 8.3 The Best of All Possible Worlds 147 8.4 Divine Morality 151 8.5 The Free Will Response 153 8.6 The Inferential Problem of Evil 158 Chapter 9: Miracles 161 9.1 Hume’s Argument Against Belief in Miracles 162 9.2 The Empirical Evidence Against Miracle Reports 169 9.3 The Miracle of Faith 173 9.4 Common Life and Hume’s Therapeutic Conception of Philosophy 176 Chapter 10: The Natural History of Religion 183 10.1 Polytheism 183 10.2 Religion and Fear 185 10.3 Monotheism 187 10.4 Other Natural Histories 190 10.5 Self-Deception and Hypocrisy 192 10.6 The Place of the Natural History in Hume’s Critique of Religion 194 Chapter 11: Morality 198 11.1 The Historical Evils of Religion 198 11.2 Christian Morality 200 11.3 Hume’s Moral Theory 203 11.4 Sexual Morality 205 Chapter 12: History and the Evaluation of Religion 215 12.1 Religion in Hume’s History of England 215 12.2 Learning from the Historical Record 217 12.3 The Redundancy of Religion 219 Chapter 13: Was Hume an Atheist? 223 13.1 Hostility to Christianity 223 13.2 Hume, the Moderates and the Social Role of Religion 224 13.3 Hume’s ‘Reversal’ 231 13.4 Friendship 235 13.5 True Religion 237 13.6 Atheism 241 Bibliography 244 Author Index 251 Subject Index 254 In this volume, authors Alan Bailey and Dan O’Brien examine the full import of David Hume’s arguments and the context of the society in which his work came to fruition. They analyze the nuanced natured of Hume's philosophical discourse and provide an informed look into his position on the possible content and rational justification of religious belief. The authors first detail the pressures and forms of repression that confronted any 18 th century thinker wishing to challenge publicly the truth of Christian theism. From there, they offer an overview of Hume's writings on religion, paying particular attention to the inter-relationships between the various works. They show that Hume's writings on religion are best seen as an artfully constructed web of irreligious argument that seeks to push forward a radical outlook, one that only emerges when the attention shifts from the individual sections of the web to its overall structure and context. Even though there is no explicit denial in any of Hume's published writings or private correspondence of the existence of God, the implications of his arguments often seem to point strongly towards atheism. David Hume was one of the leading British critics of Christianity and all forms of religion at a time when public utterances or published writings denying the truth of Christianity were liable to legal prosecution. His philosophical and historical writings offer a sustained and remarkably open critique of religion that is unmatched by any previous author writing in English. Yet, despite Hume’s widespread reputation amongst his contemporaries for extreme irreligion, the subtle and measured manner in which he presents his position means that it remains far from clear how radical his views actually were. Front Matter....Pages i-xviii Hume the Infidel....Pages 1-22 Blasphemy, Dissimulation, and Humean Prudence....Pages 23-45 Hume’s Writings on Religion....Pages 47-64 Hume on the Intelligibility of Religious Discourse....Pages 65-77 Epistemological Scepticism and Religious Belief....Pages 79-94 That Simple and Sublime Argument....Pages 95-102 The Design Argument and Empirical Evidence of God’s Existence....Pages 103-124 The Problem of Evil....Pages 125-143 Miracles....Pages 145-166 The Natural History of Religion....Pages 167-181 Morality....Pages 183-199 History and the Evaluation of Religion....Pages 201-208 Was Hume an Atheist?....Pages 209-229 Back Matter....Pages 231-247