Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 46:51 — 43.0MB)
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
Continues with Part Two; get the rest of the discussion now with your ad-free Citizen Edition. Please support PEL!
Hume picture by Solomon Grundy.
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).
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.