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Reason, Inductive Inference, and True Religion in Hume

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  13 April 2010

Bruce Janz
Bruce Janz
Affiliation:
University of Waterloo
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Extract

Although it is acknowledged that Hume's matters of fact are established by inductive reasoning, it is not always clear which inferences may be called reasonable. In deductive reasoning, it is only reasonable to admit true conclusions of valid arguments. However, in an argument which uses probability as Hume's inductive arguments do, the criterion for reasonableness is not as clear.

Type
Intervention
Information
Dialogue: Canadian Philosophical Review / Revue canadienne de philosophie , Volume 27 , Issue 4 , Winter 1988 , pp. 721 - 726
Copyright
Copyright © Canadian Philosophical Association 1988

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References

1 Stove, D. C., Probability and Hume's Inductive Scepticism (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1973), 44–45.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

2 Ibid., 50.

3 Wilson, Fred, “Hume's Defence of Science”, Dialogue 25 (1986), 611–628CrossRefGoogle Scholar. Henceforth referred to as “W”.

4 Hume, D., The Natural History of Religion, ed. Root, H. E. (Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 1956), 27, 29Google Scholar. Henceforth referred to as “NHR”.

5 Hume, D., A Treatise of Human Nature, ed. Selby-Bigge, L. A. (London: Oxford University Press, 1888), 115Google Scholar. Henceforth referred to as “T”.

6 Hume, D., “Of Superstition and Enthusiasm” in Of the Standard of Taste and Other Essays, ed. Lenz, J. (Indianapolis, IN: Bobbs-Merrill, 1965), 146.Google Scholar

7 This use is not limited only to Hume. Bishop Tillotson, for instance, says that the enthusiasts of these latter times are “those who call into question the power of the civil magistrate in matters of religion” (Tillotson, , Sermons [London: Katherine Richardson, 1704], sermon 27, 320Google Scholar), evidently a reference to the Pietists and Puritans. As well, superstition is spoken about several times in reference to the Catholics. In one sermon (John Tillotson, Works of the Most Reverent Dr.Tillotson, John [London: William Rogers et al., 1712], sermon 177, vol. 2, 509Google Scholar), for instance, when speaking about the Church of Rome, Tillotson claims that “where the Inquisition rules, and Ignorance, the Mother, not of true Devotion, but of credulity and superstition, is carefully preserved, there is no need of miracles, to make people believe …”.

8 Hume, D., Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion, ed. Smith, N. K. (Indianapolis, IN: Bobbs-Merrill, 1947), 217.Google Scholar

9 Livingston, D., Hume's Philosophy of Common Life (Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press, 1984), 172–186Google Scholar. Henceforth referred to as “PCL”.