The Natural History of Religion

In The Natural History of Religion and in the Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion Hume provides a sustained philosophical and historical analysis of religion.

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Citation

The Natural History of Religion. By David Hume. With an Introduction by John M. Robertson (London: A. and H. Bradlaugh Bonner, 1889).

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Immanuel Kant (Author)

Immanuel Kant credited David Hume with awakening him from his “dogmatic slumber” by challenging the rationalist belief in causality as a priori knowledge. He crafted his critical philosophy in response to this challenge.
John Locke (Author)

John Locke laid the foundation for empiricism by arguing that all knowledge derives from sense experience, which deeply influenced David Hume. Hume went on to expand and radicalize Locke’s ideas.
Adam Smith (Author)

Adam Smith and David Hume were close friends and intellectual allies during the Scottish Enlightenment, deeply influencing each other’s work in moral philosophy, economics, and history.
Jeremy Bentham (Author)

Bentham was influenced by Hume’s empirical approach to human nature and ethics, particularly Hume’s emphasis on utility and sentiment over abstract moral principles, which inspired Bentham’s utilitarianism.
John Stuart Mill (Author)

Mill inherited Hume’s skeptical empirical approach, using it as a foundation for his work in logic, ethics, and political philosophy.

Key Quotes

Religion & Toleration

[V]irtue, knowledge, love of liberty, are the qualities which call down the fatal vengeance of inquisitors; and when expelled, leave the society in the most shameful ignorance, corruption, and bondage. The illegal murder of one man by a tyrant is more pernicious than the death of a thousand by…

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Critical Responses

Book

Hume’s Philosophy of Religion (Library of Philosophy and Religion)

J.C.A. Gaskin

Gaskin’s develops a detailed philosophical examination of Hume’s Natural History of Religion, emphasizing its naturalistic and psychological approach to understanding religion.

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Article

Hume’s Natural History of Religion

Keith E. Yandell

Yandell’s essay provides a thorough and nuanced analysis of Hume’s Natural History, situating it within the broader context of Enlightenment thought and Hume’s skeptical philosophy

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Connected Readings

Book

The Philosophical Works of David Hume, vol. 2 (1828 ed.)

David Hume

Hume’s Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion expands on the themes of his Natural History by shifting from a historical and psychological analysis of religion’s origins to a direct philosophical debate about the rationality of religious belief.

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Book

The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, 12 vols.

Edward Gibbon

Edward Gibbon’s Decline and Fall resembles Hume’s Natural History by critically and naturalistically analyzing the historical and social impact of religion on the Roman Empire’s transformation and decline.

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Book

The Works of John Locke in Nine Volumes

John Locke

John Locke’s Essay Concerning Human Understanding (Part 1, Part 2) laid the groundwork for Hume’s method in the Natural History by emphasizing that all knowledge arises from experience and observation, which Hume uses to analyze religious beliefs as natural phenomena.

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Book

Principia mathematica (Latin ed.)

Sir Isaac Newton

Isaac Newton’s Principia Mathematica influenced Hume’s Natural History by demonstrating the power of empirical observation and scientific explanation in uncovering natural laws.

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