Scepticism and Belief in Hume’s Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion

178 Pages·1986·10.1 MB·English

by  Stanley Tweyman (auth.)

SCEPTICISM AND BELIEF IN HUME'S DIALOGUES CONCERNING
NATURAL RELIGION
ARCHIVES INTERNATIONALES D'HISTOIRE DES IDEES
INTERNATIONAL ARCHIVES OF THE HISTORY OF IDEAS
106
STANLEY TWEYMAN
SCEPTICISM AND BELIEF
IN HUME'S DIALOGUES CONCERNING
NATURAL RELIGION
Directors: P. Dibon (Paris) and R. Popkin (Washington Univ., St. Louis)
Editorial Board: J.F. Battail (Paris); F. Duchesneau (Montreal); T. Gregory (Rome); J.D.
North (Groningen); M.J. Petry (Rotterdam); Ch.B. Schmitt (Warburg Inst., London).
Advisory Editorial Board: J. Aubin (Paris); J. Collins (St. Louis Univ.); P. Costabel
(Paris); A. Crombie (Oxford); I. Dambska (Cracow); H. de la Fontaine Verwey (Amster
dam); H. Gadamer (Heidelberg); H. Gouhier (Paris); K. Hanada (Hokkaido University);
W. Kirsop (Melbourne); P.O. Kristeller (Columbia Univ.); Elisabeth Labrousse (Paris);
A. Lossky (Los Angeles); J. Malarczyk (Lublin); E. de Olaso (C.LF. Buenos Aires);
J.Orcibal (Paris); Wolfgang ROd (Munchen); J. Roger (Paris); G. Rousseau (Los
Angeles); H. Rowen (Rutgers Univ., N.J.); J.P. Schobinger (Zurich); G. Sebbat (Emory
Univ., Atlanta); R. Shackleton (Oxford); J. Tans (Groningen).
STANLEY TWEYMAN
SCEPTICISM AND BELIEF
IN HUME'S DIALOGUES
CONCERNING NATURAL
RELIGION
1986 MARTINUS NIJHOFF PUBLISHERS
a member of the KLUWER ACADEMIC PUBLISHERS GROUP
DORDRECHT I BOSTON I LANCASTER
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Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
Tweyman, Stanley, 1942-
Scepticism and belief in Hume's Dialogues concerning
natural religion.
(Archives internationales d'histoire des idees ;
106)
Bibliography: p.
Includes index.
1. Hume, David, 1711-1776. Dialogues concerning
natural religion. 2. Natural theology. 3. Skepticism.
4. Belief and doubt. I. Title. II. Series.
B1493.D523T94 1985 210 84-20619
ISBN-13: 97H-94-010-8429-1 e-ISBN-13: 978-94-009-4341-4
001: 10.1007/978-94-009-4341-4
Copyright
© 1986 by Martinus Nijhoff Publishers, Dordrecht.
Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1s t edition 1986
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a
retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, mechanical,
photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior written permission of
the publishers,
Martinus Nijhoff Publishers, P.O. Box 163, 3300 AD Dordrecht,
The Netherlands.
To my daughter Justine Susan
Table of Contents
Preface IX
Introduction XI
Chapter 1. The Philosophic Background to Hume's Dialogues
Hume's Views on Reasoning
Scepticism 3
Natural Beliefs 10
Chapter 2. Introduction and Part I of Hume's Dialogues 21
Introduction 21
Part I: Preliminary Discussion: Can There Be
a Natural Theology? 24
Chapter 3. Hume's Dialogues: Part II 31
The Argument from Design is Presented 31
The Two Versions of the Argument from Design 36
Philo's Initial Criticisms of the Argument
from Design 42
Chapter 4. Hume's Dialogues: Part III 47
Cleanthes' Illustrative Analogies 47
The Articulate Voice Illustration 50
The Living Vegetable Library Illustration 58
Chapter 5. Hume's Dialogues: Part IV 67
The First 'Inconvenience' of Anthropomorphism 67
VIII
Chapter 6. Hume's Dialogues: Part V 85
More 'Inconveniences' of Cleanthes'
Anthropomorphism 85
Chapter 7. Hume's Dialogues: Parts VI-VIII 97
Competing Cosmogonies 97
Chapter 8. Hume's Dialogues: Part XII 97
Mitigated Scepticism and Natural Theology 121
The General Thesis Restated 121
Philo's Mitigated Scepticism 124
Correcting the 'Undistinguished' Pyrrhonian
Doubts through 'Common Sense' 127
Correcting the 'Undistinguished' Pyrrhonian
Doubts through 'Reflection' 146
Bibliography 157
Index 165
Preface
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.
All references to the Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion are from The
Library of Liberal Arts edition, edited by N.K. Smith (The Bobbs-Merrill
Company, Jnc., Indianapolis, New York, 1947). References to the Natural
History of Religion are from Hume on Religion, edited by Richard Wollheim
(World Publishing Company, Cleveland, 1964). The Selby-Bigge edition of
Hume's Treatise of Human Nature has been used (Oxford at the Clarendon
Press, 1955), as well as the Selby-Bigge edition of Hume's Enquiries
Concerning the Human Understanding and Concerning the Principles of
Morals (Oxford at the Clarendon Press, second edition, 1963). References to
Nelson Pike's work on Hume are taken from Pike's edition with commentary
on the Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion (The Bobbs-Merrill Company,
Inc., Indianapolis, New York 1970).
x
The love and support I receive from my parents, Fay and Dave Tweyman,
my wife Barbara, my daughter Justine, and my brother Martin are given
without limit and without reservation; my hope is that they understand what
their love and support mean to me.
Glendon College, York University
Toronto, Ontario, Canada