Part Twelve

Abstract

Part 12 is bracketed by two problematic passages: Philo expresses extravagant religious commitments, and he declares that “to be a philosophical Sceptic is, in a man of letters, the first and most essential step toward being a sound believing Christian.” The dialectical structure of the Dialogues reflects that in the Treatise and the Enquiry. Hume recognizes the strong attraction of abstruse philosophy and thus the importance of taking precautions against it. When Philo recommends a brand of philosophical skepticism, it is the mitigated skepticism in the closing of the Enquiry. His closing adoration of a divine being is not the product of reasoning at all. It is, when it occurs, irresistible—Cleanthes’ irregular argument. Cleanthes’ “cause of order in the universe” is reduced to an anemic “having some remote analogy to human intelligence.” “Who Speaks for Hume?” is answered with assurance: Cleanthes and Philo do, and sometimes even Demea.