List Books » Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion: Of the Immortality of the Soul and of Suicide of Miracles
Authors: David Hume, Richard H. (Ed.) Popkin, Richard H. Popkin (Editor), Richard H. Popkin
ISBN-13: 9780872204027, ISBN-10: 0872204022
Format: Paperback
Publisher: Hackett Publishing Company, Inc.
Date Published: March 1998
Edition: 2nd Edition
David Hume is one of the most provocative philosophers to have written in the English language. His skeptical accounts of the causes and consequences of religious belief are expressed most powerfully in "The Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion" and "The Natural History of Religion." "The Dialogues" ask if belief in God can be inferred from the nature of the universe or whether it is even consistent with what we know about the universe. "The Natural History of Religion" investigates the origins of belief, and follows its development from harmless polytheism to dogmatic monotheism. Together they constitute a most formidable attack upon the rationality of religious belief.
Presents four works that are central to the 18th-century Scottish philosopher's campaign against organized religion. The three posthumous essays were probably written at the height of his campaign, but he dropped the project on advice from a friend. The spelling, capitalization, and punctuation are modernized and the speakers of each dialogue are identified with bold type. First published in 1980. No index. Paper edition (unseen), $5.95. Annotation c. by Book News, Inc., Portland, Or.
Introduction | ||
A Note on the Texts | ||
Select Bibliography | ||
Chronology | ||
My Own Life | 3 | |
An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding, Section XI | 11 | |
A Letter Concerning the Dialogues, 10 March 1751 | 25 | |
Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion | 29 | |
An Abstract of the Dialogues | 131 | |
The Natural History of Religion | 134 | |
Hume's Notes to The Natural History | 186 | |
An Abstract of The Natural History | 194 | |
Explanatory Notes | 197 | |
Descriptive Index of Classical Names in Hume's Texts | 216 |