"Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion" - читать интересную книгу автора (Hume David)

Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion



David Hume



1779





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Copyright 1997, James Fieser ([email protected]). See end note for
details on copyright and editing conventions. This e-text is
based on the 1779 edition of Hume's Dialogues and was
electronically compared to a commercial e-text of the Dialogues.
Visual comparisons were also made to other recent printed
editions. Spelling has been modernized according to British
spelling conventions; punctuation has not been modernized. Small
capitalization has been consistently applied to proper names. See
end note for details on copyright.1

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EDITOR'S INTRODUCTION



James Fieser



Hume's Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion ranks among the
greatest writings in the history of Western philosophy. The work
addresses the sensitive issue of the knowledge we have of God
through reason alone, and, in the process, Hume presents
arguments which undermine the classic proofs for God's existence.
The arguments in the Dialogues assume an important 18th century
distinction between natural religion and revealed religion.
Natural religion involves knowledge of God drawn from nature,
solely by the use of reasoning. Often this involves drawing
conclusions about the natural design we see in the universe.
Revealed religion, on the other hand, involves religious
knowledge derived from revelation, specifically divinely inspired
texts such as the Bible. From his earliest writings, Hume