Skip to main content Accessibility help
×
Hostname: page-component-77f85d65b8-6c7dr Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2026-04-17T05:18:49.075Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Chapter 8 - In the Shadow of Scepticism

Reasoning about Religion in Hume’s Dialogues

from Part I - Hume’s Dialogues

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  25 December 2025

Paul Russell
Affiliation:
University of British Columbia, Vancouver
Get access

Summary

This essay examines the relationship between sceptical attitudes and religious belief in David Hume’s Dialogues concerning Natural Religion. Understanding Hume’s thoughts on scepticism is one of the most important – if not the most important – keys to unlocking his thoughts on the legitimacy of reasoning in mathematics, science and philosophy. Intense controversies swirl around his explicit arguments and analyses of sceptical themes in his A Treatise of Human Nature and Enquiry concerning Human Understanding along with various essays. While some argue that Hume’s approach to scepticism changes in these various works, especially between the Treatise and Enquiry, this essay shows how examining Hume’s discussion in his Dialogues sheds light on his overall stance toward scepticism. And this understanding of his approach in turn opens up new ways of looking at how the various characters in the Dialogues can be read as advocating or illustrating Hume’s epistemological stance. Exploring these issues will also allow us to see how Hume anticipates certain aspects of contemporary debates about reasoning about the nature of logic in general and counterpossible reasoning more specifically.

Information

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Book purchase

Temporarily unavailable

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure no-reply@cambridge.org is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

  • In the Shadow of Scepticism
  • Edited by Paul Russell, University of British Columbia, Vancouver
  • Book: Hume's <i>Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion</i>
  • Online publication: 25 December 2025
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009214049.010
Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

  • In the Shadow of Scepticism
  • Edited by Paul Russell, University of British Columbia, Vancouver
  • Book: Hume's <i>Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion</i>
  • Online publication: 25 December 2025
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009214049.010
Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

  • In the Shadow of Scepticism
  • Edited by Paul Russell, University of British Columbia, Vancouver
  • Book: Hume's <i>Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion</i>
  • Online publication: 25 December 2025
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009214049.010
Available formats
×