Hume's "inexplicable mystery": his views on religion

Abstract

Preface Abbreviations Introduction Part I: The Natural History of Religion 1. The Content of the Natural History Hume's Theory of Religious Belief * Hume's Apparent Approval of the Design Argument * The Secondary Status of the Propensities to Religious Belief * Hume on Religion and Morality * Religion and Human Nature * Part Twelve of the Dialogues * Verbal Dispute in Dialogue Twelve * Philo's Confession of Faith 2. The Treatise Repetition of the Natural History Pattern of Explanation The Skeptical Prologue * Belief in an External World: Humean Constancy * Belief in an Enduring Self * Principles of Association as Propensities, Causality Included * The Treatise Explanations and the Natural History Explanation * Conflict Concerning the External World * Conflict Concerning Enduring Numerically Identical Selves 3. Religious Belief as a Danger to Human Nature A Further Similarity * Natural Beliefs * Basic Propensities * Religion and Human Nature Again * Human Nature * Hume and Calvin on Human Nature * The Rights of Reason and the Rights of Religion 4. Hume's Account of Persons as Propensity Bearers Two Models of Human Nature * The Appendix Summary * The Soul or Person * Meaning * Do Simple Perceptions Endure? * Substances * Identity * Time * A Brief Look Backward * An Example of the 'Real Connections Among Perceptions' View * Self-Awareness * Observability and Transparency * Foundationalism * Certainty and Personal Identity * Transparency and Real Connections * Why We Believe in Personal Identity * Memory and Personal Identity * Agency and Morality * Summary of the 'Real Connection' Line of Reasoning * Conclusion 5. Hume's Explanation of Religious Belief A Brief Review * The Elements of Hume's Explanation * A Critique of Hume's Strategy * The Critique Assessed * Religious Experience and Hume's Explanation * Elements of an Argument from Religious Experience * A Principle of Experiential Evidence * Social Science Explanations and the Argument from Religious Experience Part II: Hume's Discussion of Natural Theology 6. Hume's Evidentialism Hume and Radical Religious Evidentialism * Bishop Butler on Probable Evidence 7. Hume's Theory of Meaning Incomprehensibility * An Introduction to Ineffability * Ineffability: Another Look * Divine Incomprehensibility and Negative Theology * Meaning, Verification, and the Designer Hypothesis * Incomprehensibility Again 8. Design, Causality, and Purpose The Causal Principle and the Causal Maxim (Dialogues, Part Two) * Theism and the Dialogues * The Design Argument: Initial Formulation * On Proportioning Degrees of Belief and Evidence * Arguments from Experience * Inductive Arguments and Lawlike Connections * Inductive Argument and Argument by Analogy * The Design Argument and Postulation of Theoretical Entities * Relevant versus Irrelevant Properties * The Fallacy of Composition * Opposing Analogies * Is the Universe a Thing? * Being Designed and Having a Purpose 9. Inductive Arguments and Analogical Arguments Cleanthes' Attempt to Avoid Philo's Critique (Dialogues, Part Three) * Inductions from Single Cases * Review and Prospect * A Two-Stage Design Argument * Argument by Analogy to Properties of the Universe's Designer * The Most Plausible Analogy or Model * Miscellaneous Topics * (A10) and Ultimate Explanations 10. Design Arguments and Multiple Models Ramifications of and Alternatives to the Designer Hypothesis (Dialogues, Part Four) * More Ramifications of the Designer Hypothesis (Dialogues, Part Five) * Alternatives to the Designer Hypothesis Again (Dialogues, Part Six) * The Universe, Vegetables, and Animals (Dialogues, Part Seven) * Various Models for Understanding Universal Order Again * Alternative Models for Explaining Universal Order (Dialogues, Part Eight) 11. Other Theistic Arguments Demea's a Priori Arguments (Dialogues, Part Nine) * The Notion of Necessary Existence * The Universe and Necessity * Explanation and Infinite Series * Philonian Determinism 12. Evil, Happiness, and Goodness Religion and Fear (Dialogues, Part Ten) * Hedonism * The Equivocation Argument * The Equivocation Argument Assessed * Happier Possible Persons? * Means and Ends * The Argument of Epicurus * The Argument of Epicurus Assessed * Omnibenevolence and the Phenomena 13. Evil, Prediction, and Probability The Prediction Argument (Dialogues, Part Eleven) * Is Evil a Priori Unlikely? * The Aquinas Line * The Leibniz Line * Determinism and Responsibility * Disanalogies between God and Human Agents * Direct and Indirect Causation * The Consistency Question * Philo's Four Causes * Philo's Four Circumstances * The Four Circumstances Argument * Evil and Probability Part III: Further Humeana 14. Superstition, Enthusiasm, Suicide, and Immortality Of Superstition and Enthusiasm * On Suicide * Immortality * Metaphysical Arguments * Moral Arguments * Physical Arguments * Ethical Arguments * The Pre-Dialogues Dialogue 15. Miracles What Is a Miracle? * Miracles and Extraordinary Events * Miracles and the Stormy History of Science * Miracles and Epistemology * Hume's Argument Appraised * Hume's Subsidiary Arguments * Some Comments about the Subsidiary Arguments * Hume's Main Position on Miracles * Conclusion Notes Bibliography Index