Colloque

Causa Dei: Bayle, Hume et la nature de Dieu

Todd Ryan

Membre a labase

Todd Ryan

Résumé du colloque

Since the groundbreaking work of Norman Kemp Smith, scholars have recognized the decisive influence of Pierre Bayle on Hume's philosophy in general and in particular on the critique of natural religion he develops in the "Dialogues concerning Natural Religion". Nevertheless, the extent and nature of this influence are as yet poorly understood. In this paper I show that a careful analysis of Bayle's "Dictionary" and subsequent writings can shed welcome light on a number of key issues in Hume's "Dialogues", including the relation between fideism and skepticism, the analogy between human understanding and the first cause of the universe, and the difficulty posed by the existence of evil for theistic philosophers.