Abstract
This paper argues that Hume’s claim to have some belief in God is accurate because his own philosophy is held together by a teleological underpinning that leads to the idea of God. Previous work that has favorably connected Hume’s philosophy to Kant’s provides a framework to argue that Hume inadvertently admits a teleological a priori in understanding nature in the same way that Kant understands teleology as the “lawfulness of the contingent.” Having connected Hume and Kant through teleological aesthetics, this paper moves to show how this teleology underwrites several positive statements about God that Hume makes in the Dialogues.
References
Ayer, A. J. “Editor’s Introduction.” In Logical Positivism. New York: The Free Press, 1959.Search in Google Scholar
Beck, L. W. “A Prussian Hume and a Scottish Kant.” In Essays on Kant and Hume. London: Yale University Press, 1978.Search in Google Scholar
Boswell, James. “Death and David Hume.” In Boswell in Extremes, edited by Charles M. Weis and Frederick A. Pottle. Boston: McGraw-Hill, 1970. http://digital.nls.uk/scotlandspages/timeline/17762.html (accessed October 21, 2012).Search in Google Scholar
Butler, R. J. “Natural Belief and the Enigma of Hume.” Archiv fur Geschicte der Philosophie 42 (1960): 73-100.10.1515/agph.1960.42.1.73Search in Google Scholar
Firstone, Chris and Stephen Palmquist, eds. Kant and the New Philosophy of Religion. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2006.Search in Google Scholar
Gaskin, J. C. A. Hume’s Philosophy of Religion. New York: Barnes and Noble, 1978.Search in Google Scholar
Ginsborg, Hannah. “Kant on Aesthetic and Biological Purposiveness.” In Reclaiming the History of Ethics: Essays for John Rawls, edited by A. Reath, B. Herman, and C. Korsgaard. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1997.Search in Google Scholar
Ginsborg, Hannah. “Reflective Judgment and Taste.” Noûs 24:1 (March, 1990): 63-78.10.2307/2215613Search in Google Scholar
Gracyk, Theodore. “Hume and Kant: Summary and Comparison.” Minnesota State University Webpage. Last modified February 15, 2006. http://web.mnstate.edu/gracyk/courses/phil%20of%20art/hume_and_kant.htm. (accessed October, 23, 2014).Search in Google Scholar
Gracyk, Theodore. “Rethinking.” The Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism 52:2 (Spring 1994): 169-182.10.1111/1540_6245.jaac52.2.0169Search in Google Scholar
Guyer, Paul. Kant and the Claims of Taste. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1979.Search in Google Scholar
Guyer, Paul. Kant and the Experience of Freedom. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1993.10.1017/CBO9781139172516Search in Google Scholar
Guyer, Paul. “Systematicity, Taste, and Purpose.” In Knowledge, Reason, and Taste. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2008.10.1515/9781400824472Search in Google Scholar
Hume, David. A Letter to a Gentleman from his Friend in Edinburgh. Generic NL Freebook Publisher, n.d. eBook Collection. EBSCO host (accessed August 3, 2011).Search in Google Scholar
Hume, David. Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion, edited by Norman Kemp-Smith. Indianapolis: Bobbs-Merrill, 1947.Search in Google Scholar
Hume, David. The Letters of David Hume. Vol. 1, edited by J. Y. T. Greig. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2011.Search in Google Scholar
Hume, David. The Natural History of Religion, edited by H. E. Root. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1956.Search in Google Scholar
Hume, David. “Of the Standard of Taste.” In Essays, Moral, Political, Literary, edited by Eugene Miller. Indianapolis: Liberty Classics, 1985.Search in Google Scholar
Hume, David. A Treatise of Human Nature, edited by L. A. Selby-Bigge. Revised P. H. Nidditch. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1960.Search in Google Scholar
Johansson, I. “Hume’s Scottish Kantianism.” Ruch Filozoficzny, 3 (2002): 421-453.Search in Google Scholar
Kant, Immanuel. Critique of Judgment, translated by Werner Pluhar. Indianapolis: Hackett Publishing Company, 1987.Search in Google Scholar
Kant, Immanuel. Critique of Pure Reason. Unified Edition, translated by Werner Pluhar. Indianapolis: Hackett Publishing Company, 1987.Search in Google Scholar
Kant, Immanuel. Prolegomena to any Future Metaphysics, edited and translated by Gary Hatfield. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2004.10.1017/CBO9780511808517Search in Google Scholar
Kant, Immanuel. “What does it mean to orient oneself in thinking?” In Religion within the Boundaries of Mere Reason: And Other Writings, edited by Allen Wood. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1999.Search in Google Scholar
Mall, R. A. “Humes Prinzipien – und Kants Kategoriensystem.” Kant Studien (1971): 319-334.10.1515/kant.1971.62.1-4.319Search in Google Scholar
Nuyen, A. T. “Hume on Taste and Reason.” Philosophy Papers XXV:1 (1996): 57-71.10.1080/05568649609506538Search in Google Scholar
Palmquist, Stephen. Kant’s Critical Religion. Brulington: Ashgate Publishing, 2000.Search in Google Scholar
Palmquist, Stephen. “Kant’s Religious Argument for the Existence of God: The Ultimate Dependence of Human Destiny on Divine Assistance.” Faith and Philosophy 26:1 (January 2009): 3-22.10.5840/faithphil20092611Search in Google Scholar
Penelhum, Terence. David Hume: An Introduction to His Philosophical System. West Lafayette: Purdue University Press, 1992.Search in Google Scholar
Penelhum, Terence. Hume. London: MacMillan, 1975.10.1007/978-1-349-01057-8Search in Google Scholar
Penelhum, Terence. “Hume’s Skepticism and the Dialogues.” In McGill Hume Studies, edited by Norton, Capaldi, and Robinson. San Diego: Austin Hill Press, 1979.Search in Google Scholar
Penelhum, Terence. “Natural Belief and Religious Belief in Hume’s Philosophy.” The Philosophical Quarterly 33:131 (April, 1983): 166-181.10.2307/2218743Search in Google Scholar
Russell, Paul. “Hume on Religion.” In The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Fall 2013 Edition), edited by Edward N. Zalta.Search in Google Scholar
Russel, Paul. The Riddle of Hume’s Treatise: Skepticism, Naturalism, and Irreligion. New York: Oxford University Press, 2010. http://plato.stanford.edu/archives/fall2013/entries/hume-religion/> (accessed October 18, 2014).Search in Google Scholar
Strawson, Galen. The Secret Connection: Causation, Realism, and David Hume. Revised. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2014.Search in Google Scholar
Stroud, B. Hume. London: Routledge, 1977.Search in Google Scholar
Wolff, R. P. “Hume’s Theory of Mental Activity.” In Hume, edited by V. C. Chappell. London: MacMillan, 1966.10.1007/978-1-349-15271-1_5Search in Google Scholar
Wood, Allen. “Rational Theology, Moral Faith, and Religion.” In The Cambridge Companion to Kant, edited by Paul Guyer. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1992.10.1017/CCOL0521365872.014Search in Google Scholar
Zangwill, Nick. “Hume, Taste, and Teleology.” In The Metaphysics of Beauty. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 2001. 10.7591/9781501711350Search in Google Scholar
©2015 Ronald Mercer
This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 3.0 License.