Al-Warraq Library does not host book files; it takes you to the copy at the original source. Public-domain status differs from country to country, so check the law where you live before downloading or republishing the book. Do you hold rights in this work? Request its removal
Three friends discuss whether we can know anything about God from the world around us. Cleanthes argues that the order of nature, like a great machine…
Three friends discuss whether we can know anything about God from the world around us. Cleanthes argues that the order of nature, like a great machine, proves the existence of an intelligent designer; Demea, a pious believer, insists that God's nature lies beyond human understanding; and Philo, a sceptic, takes the argument from design apart piece by piece, asking why an imperfect, suffering world should point to a perfect and all-good creator.
Context and significance
David Hume (1711–1776), the Scottish philosopher, worked on the Dialogues for more than twenty-five years but held them back, fearing the scandal they would cause; they were published in 1779, three years after his death. They remain the classic critique of the argument from design. Read Hume's Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding.
About the author
David Hume (1711–1776) was born in Edinburgh and wrote his Treatise of Human Nature in his twenties, in France. His scepticism about religion cost him professorships at Edinburgh and Glasgow, but his essays and his History of England made him famous and comfortable.
As secretary to the British embassy in Paris he was adored in the salons, and in Edinburgh he was the warm centre of the Scottish Enlightenment and a close friend of Adam Smith. His Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding woke Kant from his dogmatic slumber. He faced death with a calm and humour that astonished his visitors.