Hume, David / 2008-07-27 00:00:00
THE NATURAL HISTORY OF RELIGION
David Hume
1757
5/1/95
Copyright 1995, James Fieser (jfieser@utm.edu). See end note for
details on copyright and editing conventions. This is a working
draft; please report errors.[1]
Editor's Note: Hume's first appeared
in 1757 in a collection of essays titled . The
work may be topically divided into three parts. The first part
(sections 1 and 4) argues that polytheism, and not monotheism, was
the original religion of primitive humans. Monotheism was only a
later development. The second part (sections 2-3, 5-8) establishes
the psychological principles which give rise to religious belief.
His thesis is that natural instincts such as fear are the true cause
of popular religious belief, and not rational argument. The third
part of this work (sections 9-15) compares various aspects of
polytheism with monotheism showing that one is no more superior than
the other.
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Parts:
1
2
3
4
5
6