David Hume, a Scottish philosopher, wrote Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion, which was originally printed in 1779. Three philosophers named Demea, Philo, and Cleanthes engage in a discourse in which they discuss the essence of God's existence. Scholars disagree as to whether or not these titles refer to particular philosophers, ancient or modern. All three of them acknowledge the existence of a god, but their views on God's nature or qualities and whether or not people may acquire knowledge of a deity are very different. A variety of reasons for the presence of God and arguments put forth by those who think we can learn more about God's nature are discussed by Hume's characters in the Dialogues. The argument from design, for which Hume employs a house, and whether there is more suffering or good in the world are two examples of such hot-button issues. A variety of reasons for the presence of God and arguments put forth by those who think we can learn more about God's nature are discussed by Hume's characters in the Dialogues. The argument from design, for which Hume employs a house, and whether there is more suffering or good in the world are two examples of such hot-button issues.
David Home, a Scottish Enlightenment philosopher, historian, economist, librarian, and essayist who lived from 7 May 1711 NS (26 April 1711 OS) to 25 August 1776, was most recognized today for his very important school of philosophical empiricism, skepticism, and naturalism. Hume worked to establish a naturalistic science of man that looked at the psychological underpinnings of human nature, starting with A Treatise of Human Nature (1739–1740). Hume contended that there are no inborn notions and that all human understanding comes only through experience. As an empiricist, he is so grouped with Francis Bacon, Thomas Hobbes, John Locke, and George Berkeley. Inductive reasoning and the notion of causation, according to Hume, cannot be supported by logic; rather, they are the products of mental habits and custom. Due to the induction problem, it is impossible to provide the basis for the premise that the future will resemble the past, which is required in order to draw any causal conclusions from the past. Hume also rejected the idea that people have a true sense of who they are, asserting that what we actually experience is a collection of sensations and that the self is nothing more than this collection of causally related experiences.
