David Hume's Weak and Non-Dogmatic Atheism A critical View on Downright Atheist, Downright Agnostic, Genuine Theist and Attenuated Deist Interpretations of David Hume

Document Type : Original Article

Authors
farideh lazemi 1
zolfagar hemmati argoun 2
1 Postdoctoral Researcher, Faculty of Persian Literature and Foreign Languages, Tabriz University, Tabriz, Iran
2 3 Allameh Research Institute, University of Tabriz, Tabriz, Iran
10.30470/phm.2023.1971234.2307
Abstract
In the second half of the eighteenth century, with the publication of non-religious philosophy, Hume claims that the existence of the Christian God is impossible, therefore his contemporaries viewed him as a downright atheist. Recently, and despite the interpretations of the last two centuries, Hume has not been introduced as an atheist, but as an agnostic, theist and deist. According to these three attitudes, perhaps Hume has either suspended the claims of thick theism and thin theism, or has explicitly endorsed the existence of God, or has defended from unknown commitment regarding the existence of wisdom that is the origin, creator, and ruler of this world.

This paper rejects mentioned four readings and shows that Hume is a weak and non-dogmatic atheist. Because, this philosopher, by demonstrating that the claims of thick theism are groundless, concludes that the existence of God, with a rich set of attributes, is impossible. However, Hume's attitude to thin theism is not so sharp. Thin theism is not wrong and incredible. According to him, thin theism is empty and useless, that it does not deserve to investigate by any skeptic. In fact, Hume neither denied, nor suspended, nor endorsed thin theism; If he would denied it, he would knowned as downright atheist, if he would suspended it, he would knowned as downright agnostic, and if he would endorsed it, he would knowned as genuine theist and attenuated deist.
Keywords
Downright Atheist
Weak or Non-Dogmatic Atheist
Downright Agnostic
Genuine Theist
Attenuated Deist
David Hume
Subjects
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