HUME'S REFLECTION ON RELIGION

ARCHIVES INTERNATIONALES D'HISTOIRE DES IDEES

INTERNATIONAL ARCHIVES OF THE HISTORY OF IDEAS

178

HUME'S REFLECTION ON RELIGION

byMIGUEL A. BADIA CABRERA

Founding Directors:

P. Dibont (Paris) and R.H. Popkin (Washington University, St. Louis & UCLA)

Director:Sarah Hutton (The University of Hertfordshire, United Kingdom)

Associate-Directors: lE. Force (Lexington); J.e. Laursen (Riverside)Editorial Board: J.E Battail (Paris); E Duchesneau (Montreal); A. Gabbey (New York);

T. Gregory (Rome); J.D. North (Oxford); MJ. Petry (Rotterdam); J. Popkin (Lexington);G.AJ. Rogers (Keele); Th. Verbeek (Utrecht)

Advisory Editorial Board: J. Aubin (Paris); B. Copenhaver (Los Angeles);A. Crombie (Oxford); H. Gadamer (Heidelberg); H. Gouhier (Paris);

K. Hanada (Hokkaido University); W. Kirsop (Melbourne);l Malarczyk (Lublin); J. Orcibal (Paris); W. Rod (MUnchen);

. G. Rousseau (Los Angeles); J.P. Schobinger (ZUrich); l Tans (Groningen)

MIGUEL A. BADIA CABRERADepartamento de Filosofia

Universidad de Puerto Rico,Rio Piedras

HUME'S REFLECTIONON RELIGION

•,KLUWER ACADEMIC PUBLISHERS

DORDRECHT / BOSTON / LONDON

A C.I.P. Catalogue record for this book is available from the Library of Congress.

ISBN 978-94-010-3844-7 ISBN 978-94-010-0848-8 (eBook) DOI 10.1007/978-94-010-0848-8

Printed an acid-free paper

AII Rights Reserved © 2001 Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht

Originally published by Kluwer Academic Publishers in 2001 Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1 st edition 2001

No part of the material protected by this copyright notice may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical,

inc1uding photocopying, recording or by any information storage and retrieval system, without written permission from the copyright owner

To my wife, Marcela,my son, David Miguel,

and my daughter, Luz Elena

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Preface xi

Introduction .

Part I Hume's Scrutiny of Religion:Its Theoretical Foundations, Historical Roots, and Ultimate Goals ......... 11

Hume's Philosophical Project and his Reflection on Religion 13

1.1 The "Science of Man" as First Philosophy:Its Nature and Problematical Character 13

1.2 Hume's First Philosophy and the Reflection on Religion 30

2 Brief Historical Setting of Hume's Investigation of Religion 33

2.1 The Rise and Fall of Natural Religion 33

2.2 The "Modest" Enlightened Aims of Hume's Critique of Religion ........ 49

Part II The Origin, Development and Historical Effects of Religious Beliefs ..... 57

3 The Nature of Hume's Investigation of Religion 59

4 The Conception of the Phenomenon to be Investigated 66

4.1 The Permanent Essence of Religion 66

4.2 The Natural although Not Instinctive Character of Religion 75

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5 The Origin of Religion: Critical Exposition of Hume's Theory 86

6 Religion and History 107

6.1 The Conception of History in The Natural History ofReligion 107

6.2 The Conception of History in The History ofEngland 117

6.3 The Conception of History in his Essays 123

7 Belief and Faith 128

7.1 The Problem 128

7.2 Ordinary Belief about Matters of Fact 130

7.3 Religious Faith 139

8 The Ethical Depreciation of Religion 153

8.1 Introduction 153

8.2 The Moral Harmfulness of Religion 154

8.3 Critical Assessment of Hume's Claim 161

8.4 The Political and Aesthetic Re-Evaluation of Religion 169

8.5 Concluding Remarks 171

Part III Hume's Natural Theology:The Critique of the Presumed Validity of Religious Beliefs............... 173

9 From Historical Religion to Natural Religion 175

9.1 Vulgar vs. Philosophical Religion 175

9.2 General Remarks Concerning the Critique of Natural Religion 186

10 The Impassable Path of A Priori Reasoning: Analysis ofHume's Critique of the Ontological Argument and Its Foundations 190

10.1 Piety and the Proof... 190

Table ofContents ix

10.2 Hume's Critique and its Foundations 191

10.3 The Severing of the Common Thread of the Ontological andCosmological Arguments: the Idea ofNecessary Existence............. 198

·10.4 The Ontological Argumentand the Rejection of the Property of Existence 201

10.5 Some Questions aboutHume's Account ofExistence and Non-Existence 203

10.6 The Discreet Historical Effect ofHume's Critique 209

11 The Rejection of Miracles:An Attempt to Elucidate the Import of Hume's Critique 212

11.1 Historical Note 212

11.2 Analysis of Hume's Argument 217

11.3 Various Objections to Hume's Procedure 224

11.4 Locke's Position on the Evidential Value of Miraclesand its Affmity with Hume's 230

11.5 Hume's Conclusionand the Relation of Sect. X to Sect. XI of the Enquiry 232

12 The Uncertain Path of Empirical Reasoning, Part I:The Unfolding ofHume's Critique of the Argument from Design 235

12.1 Introduction 235

12.2 The Critique in A Treatise ofHuman Nature 235

12.3 The Critique in An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding ....... 239

12.4 The Critique in The Natural History ofReligion 246

13 The Uncertain Path of Empirical Reasoning, Part II:The Critique of the Argument from Design in the Dialogues ConcerningNatural Religion 249

13.1 Preliminary Remarks 249

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13.2 Henneneutic Difficulties of the Dialogues 250

13.3 The Critique of the Design Hypothesis (Introduction, Parts I-V) ....... 255

13.4 The Naturalistic Alternatives to Theism:Hylozoism and Materialism (Parts VI-IX) 264

13.5 The Anti-Theodicy (Parts X-XI) 273

13.6 Hume's Mitigated Theism (Part XII) 283

Part IV General Conclusions 295

14 The Natural and Reasonable Characterof the Belief in an Intellligent Author of the Universe 297

Bibliography 309

Index 321

PREFACE

The present work is a revised and enlarged English version of a book originallywritten in Spanish and published in late 1996, La rejlexion de David Hume enlorno a /a religion. Since David Hume is arguably not only the most importantphilosopher who has ever written in the English language, but the most studied andinfluential, it is only natural that sooner than later I would feel the urgency to bringto the attention of a much wider public a work whose outlook is, I think, signifi­cantly different from that of other books which deal with the Scottish thinker'sworks on religion and natural theology. This desire was so strong as to allow me toovercome the all-too-natural fear that my wavering and uncertain command ofEnglish would make the few valuable insights the work might contain appear un­clear, and my philosophical errors, even more astonishing.

This book is addressed not only to scholars who may be interested in modemphilosophy in general or Hume's philosophy of religion in particular, but also tothe more extensive compass of readers either intrigued or troubled by religion andthe myriad of issues and problems it poses, which are, as it were, the prime matterfor philosophical analysis and theorizing. In spite of its philosophical and linguisticlimitations, for which I am entirely responsible, I fervently hope that this work maybe found to contain something of that elusive truth after which Hume strove, and towhich he remained constant to the end, particularly at a time when the price to bepaid for the publication of controversial philosophical and religious views was con­siderably higher than that of becoming an easy target for universal ridicule.

The completion of this work has been made possible principally by a sabbaticalleave that the University of Puerto Rico granted me for the year 1999. This leavegave me the necessary time to read and study the pertinent literature, as well as towrite most of the English manuscript. It also allowed me to visit Edinburgh andspend most of July and August 1999 at the National Library of Scotland and theEdinburgh University Library. Although I have incorporated into the present workonly a small part of my research at those libraries, if this book shows a greater ap­preciation of the immediate social and religious context of Hume's thought(particularly of Calvinistic theology and the Scottish Enlightement) than itsSpanish predecessor, it is in no small measure due to the books, articles, and

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manuscrits I was able to consult at the time. In this respect, I would like to thankProfessor Peter Jones, Director of the Institute for Advanced Studies in theHumanities at the University of Edinburgh, who was very instrumental in makingmy visit to Edinburgh a reality, and generously put the facilities of the Institute atmy disposal.

Many thoughts and lines of argument contained in this book date back to mydoctoral dissertation, and some earlier versions of a number of chapters or sectionsof chapters have been published in different philosophy journals or anthologies. Ilist all of them in the bibliography under my name. But since my previous workson the subject have been revised and modified so many times in the light of newfmdings or to meet actual or possible criticism, I can say that they have been effec­tively superseded by the present writing.

The persons to whom I am philosophically indebted are almost innumerable. IfI fail to mention all of them it is not for lack of gratitude but only due to spacelimitations. To the following scholars lowe most because their works have inspiredand encouraged me in a more conscious manner to put together my peculiarinterpretation ofHume's philosophy of religion. I must acknowledge my enduringadmiration and gratitude to Pall S. Ardal, John C. A. Gaskin, Donald W.Livingston and Stanley Tweyman. Were it not for my great teachers at the NewSchool for Social Research in New York, the late Aron Gurwitsch, AlbertHoftstadter and Hans Jonas, I would not have pursued the idea that Husserlianphenomenology might provide a fruitful approach to Hume's theoreticalphilosophy. And lastly I am greatly indebted to Norman Kemp Smith and ErnestCampbell Mossner, for there is no contemporary Hume scholar whose work has notbeen touched and improved by the truly awesome commentaries of the former andthe monumental and vibrant intellectual biography of the latter.

For their criticism of the original manuscript submitted to the publisher, I wishalso to thank the two anonymous referees. This book is, all in all, a less imperfectperformance due to their comments and extremely valuable suggestions. In revisingthe manuscript, I have addressed all the particular points they raised and tried to an­swer their objections to the best of my abilities. If I have not followed all their gen­eral recommendations it is only because in order to do so I would have had to writean altogether different book which exceeded both my intentions and capacities.

Perhaps this is the right place to note that all references to Hume's works in thisbook will be made using the following abbreviations and from the following edi­tions: DNR: Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion, 2d ed., ed. Norman KempSmith (New York: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, Inc., 1947; Indianapolis, 1981);E: David Hume: Essays, Moral, Political and Literary, rev. ed., ed. Eugene F.Miller (Indianapolis: Liberty Classics, 1987); EHU: An Enquiry ConcerningHuman Understanding, EPM: An Enquiry Concerning the Principles of Morals, inEnquiries Concerning the Human Understanding and Concerning the Principles ofMorals, ed. L. A. Selby-Bigge, 3d ed. rev., P. H. Nidditch (Oxford: ClarendonPress, 1975); H: The History ofEngland, from the Invasion ofJulius Caesar to theRevolution of 1688, 6 vols. Based on the edition of 1778 (Indianapolis: LibertyFund, Inc., 1983); L: The Letters of David Hume, ed. J. Y. T. Greig. 2 vols.

Preface xiii

(Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1969); NHR: The Natural History ofReligion, ed. H. E.Root. (Stanford, California: Stanford University Press, 1956); THN: A Treatise ofHuman Nature, ed. L. A. Selby-Bigge 2d ed. rev., P. H. Nidditch (Oxford:Clarendon Press, 1978); THN, A: An Abstract of a Treatise of Human Nature, inA Treatise of Human Nature, ed. L. A. Selby-Bigge. 2d ed. rev., ed. P. H.Nidditch (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1978). References to these works are givenwithin parentheses in the text and notes.

I wish to acknowledge and thank Professor Joel Donato Jimenez, Director of theAcademic Computing Laboratory of the University of Puerto Rico (LabCad), at RioPiedras, whose technical assistance was essential for the preparation of the camera­ready manuscript of the book.

And fmally, I would like to thank my wife, Marcela, my son, David Miguel,and my daughter, Luz Elena. Much of the strength I could muster to complete thisproject comes from their generous and constant love. Like my gratitude, my lovefor them is unbounded.

Departamento de Filosofia, Universidad de Puerto RicoRio Piedras, Puerto Rico