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Title
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Hume on religion in the Enquiry concerning the principles of morals
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Author
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Abstract
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| In this chapter I argue that despite Hume’s explicit criticisms of enthusiasm and superstition in the Enquiry Concerning the Principles of Morals, one of his more important and primary targets are the orthodox and moderate Protestants of his time who would also scorn both enthusiasm and superstition, and those philosophers who have mixed Protestant accounts of virtue and duty with their philosophy. What is more, I show that Hume rejects central aspects of two prominent Protestant texts, The Whole Duty of Man and the Westminster Confession of Faith, but he also borrows some of their language and mimics their style. Hume rejects The Whole Duty of Man’s catalogue of duties limited to voluntary traits, and the Confessions’ account of the sole purpose of man as well as its view of human nature. Still, in the EPM Hume seems to use the style and language of these texts in order to be as influential as they were and to push religion back into the temple (and out of the public space) and to bring his moral philosophy out of the closet into common life in order to give it more extensive and explicit recognition as the accurate description of virtue and vice. The EPM, therefore, is Hume’s own secular but religiously styled credo on duty and virtue. |
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Language
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English
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Source (book)
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Hume's An enquiry concerning the principles of morals : a critical guide / Kroeker, E.E. [edit.]; Lemmens, W. [edit.]
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Source (series)
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Cambridge critical guides
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Publication
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Cambridge
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Cambridge University Press
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2021
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ISBN
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978-1-108-42287-1
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DOI
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10.1017/9781108525497.012
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Volume/pages
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p. 219-237
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Full text (Publisher's DOI)
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