In the pages that follow, an attempt is made to examine those sections of the Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion which deal with the Argument from Design - the argument which purports to prove that certain observed similarities between the design of the world and machines of human contrivance countenance reasoning by analogy to the conclusion that the cause of the design of the world resembles human intelligence. The sections which deal with the Argument from Design, and with which I am therefore concerned, are Parts I through VIII and Part XII. I argue that a clue to Hume's discussion of the Argument from Design is to be found in Section XII of the first Enquiry, in which Hume presents his most thorough analysis of philosophic dogmatism and scepticism. The Dialogues, as will be shown, follows precisely Hume's recommendations in this Section for bringing the dogmatist to the position which Hume himself endorses - 'mitigated scepticism. ' It is, then, the position of the mitigated sceptic which is elaborated in Part XII of the Dialogues. The belief in an intelligent designer of the world is shown to be akin to certain other beliefs discussed by Hume - causality, physical objects, a continuing self - which are usually referred to in the literature as 'natural beliefs. ' The mitigated sceptic's defense of the unknowability of the divine nature is seen to be in accordance with Hume's view that whatever is believed naturally cannot be known or understood.
Erscheinungsdatum: 27.09.2011

lgrsnf/D:\HDD4\!genesis\1\SPR_NEW_2014-01\bok%3A978-94-009-4341-4.pdf

nexusstc/Scepticism and Belief in Hume’s Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion/3966c592413aff06b85ed52e4b283495.pdf

zlib/Society, Politics & Philosophy/Stanley Tweyman (auth.)/Scepticism and Belief in Hume’s Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion_2318821.pdf

Martinus Nijhoff Publishers, a member of the Kluwer Academic Publishers Group

Springer Science + Business Media BV

International Archives of the History of Ideas Archives Internationales d'histoire des Idées Ser, v.106, Dordrecht, 1986

International Archives of the History of Ideas/Archives Internationales D'Histoire des Idees, 106, Dordrecht, 1986

Springer Nature, Dordrecht, 2012

Dordrecht, The Netherlands, 1988

Netherlands, Netherlands

1, 2011

lg1150133

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Front Matter....Pages I-XV
The Philosophic Background to the Dialogues ....Pages 1-19
Introduction and Part I of the Dialogues ....Pages 21-30
Hume’s Dialogues : Part II....Pages 31-46
Hume’s Dialogues : Part III....Pages 47-65
Hume’s Dialogues : Part IV....Pages 67-83
Hume’s Dialogues : Part V....Pages 85-95
Hume’s Dialogues : Parts VI–VIII....Pages 97-120
Hume’s Dialogues : Part XII....Pages 121-156
Back Matter....Pages 157-167

2014-02-12