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Episode 167: Hume on Intelligent Design (Part One)

July 3, 2017 by Mark Linsenmayer 4 Comments

http://www.podtrac.com/pts/redirect.mp3/traffic.libsyn.com/partiallyexaminedlife/PEL_ep_167pt1_6-15-17.mp3

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 47:59 — 44.0MB)

On David Hume's Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion (1779). How would a scientifically minded person argue for God's existence?

In Hume's dialogue, a character named Cleanthes argues from this point of view for God's existence based on the complexity and order apparent in nature: It looks designed. But how good is that argument, and is it enough to prove an infinite God of the traditional sort?

Stephen West from the Philosophize This! podcast joins Mark, Wes, and Dylan to talk through the roles of the different characters in the dialogue, whether their various arguments make sense, and what Hume's actual views might be. Watch a video accompanying Mark's episode introduction.

Buy the book or you can try this online version (the one Mark used) or this one.

Don't wait until next week for part 2; get the rest of the discussion now with your ad-free Citizen Edition. Please support PEL!

Hume picture by Solomon Grundy.

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Filed Under: Podcast Episodes Tagged With: argument from design, David Hume, philosophy of religion, philosophy podcast

Comments

  1. Seyed Razavi says

    July 6, 2017 at 10:06 am

    Mark reading the summary of the text was really stilted and killed the fun of PEL. I have never felt it was needed in all the previous episodes and I could really tell Mark didn’t want to do it.

    So please, don’t make it a new thing for the format.

    (Aside: the precog episodes you used to do were not great with the exception of the one Seth did on Heidegger. This felt like tacking on those precogs at the top of the PEL episode).

    Reply
    • Kent says

      July 17, 2017 at 9:55 am

      I disagree. I found it helpful to have a quick overview of the text since I haven’t read it, and unfortunately don’t have time to do so right now due to my graduate studies. I’ve generally gotten the most out of PEL episodes when I’ve had the chance to read the text beforehand, but hearing a brief overview is a good substitute for when I’m unable to do so.

      Reply

Trackbacks

  1. Media Mining Digest 298 – Jul 28, 2017: Activist Cleve Jones, African Virologist, Aging Concepts for Nurses, Agriculture Apps, American Dream, Anesthesia Failure, Animal Cruelty and neglect, Antibiotic Resistance, Australia Tax Office Problems, Back Inj says:
    July 28, 2017 at 9:48 am

    […] Intelligent Design 48 mins – “On David Hume’s Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion (1779). How would a scientifically minded person argue for God’s existence? In Hume’s dialogue, a character named Cleanthes argues from this point of view for God’s existence based on the complexity and order apparent in nature: It looks designed. But how good is that argument, and is it enough to prove an infinite God of the traditional sort? Stephen West from the Philosophize This! podcast joins Mark, Wes, and Dylan to talk through the roles of the different characters in the dialogue, whether their various arguments make sense, and what Hume’s actual views might be.” At the link right-click “Download” and select “Save Link As” from the pop-up menu. […]

    Reply
  2. Episode 168: Darwin's "Origin of Species" (Part One) | The Partially Examined Life Philosophy Podcast | A Philosophy Podcast and Blog says:
    August 27, 2017 at 11:40 pm

    […] are the philosophical ramifications of Darwin's theory of evolution? Our last reading ended with David Hume saying that given the order of nature, the idea of a designer was natural and […]

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