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Hume's Tacit Atheism

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 October 2008

Charles Echelbarger
Charles Echelbarger
Affiliation:
Professor of Philosophy, S.U.N.Y.College at Oswego
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Extract

A recent paper, ‘Hume's Immanent God’, (in (I))* by George Nathan, contains an insightful interpretation of Hume's Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion (henceforth, briefly, D). Insight is no guarantee against error. I shall argue that Nathan's interpretation is mistaken, and then offer my own.

Nathan observes that the general tendency in scholarship on D has been to focus on its sceptical side. He proposes to ‘bring out Hume's positive contribution’. Nathan's thesis, briefly, is that D best supports a modestly theistic interpretation according to which God is the ultimate cause of order in the universe.

Information

Type
Research Article
Information
Religious Studies , Volume 11 , Issue 1 , March 1975 , pp. 19 - 35
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1975

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References

BIBLIOGRAPHY

(1)Chappell, Vere C., Hume. Doubleday, New York, 1966.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
(2)Charles, Hendel, Studies in the Philosophy of David Hume. Indianapolis, 1963.Google Scholar
(3)Hume, David, An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding. Open Court, LaSalle, Illinois, 1963.Google Scholar
(4)Kemp-Smith, Norman, Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion, by Hume, David. Bobbs-Merrill, New York, 1946.Google Scholar