David Hume on Philosophy and Religion

Abstract

 The lecture argues that Hume reconfigures Christian theology within modern philosophy. Starting from the early modern problem of the external world, it shows how Descartes and Locke linked that problem to the existence of God, and how Hume breaks with Locke’s rational grounding of faith. Hume denies any strict division between knowledge, belief, and faith, treating all of them as products of human nature. His theory of external objects is therefore central to his philosophy of religion: belief in both the external world and God is explained not as certain knowledge but as natural belief shaped by imagination and habit. On this basis, the lecture challenges the common view that Hume is simply an atheist and instead presents him as a thinker who transforms theology within the science of human nature.

Biographie

Naoki Yajima is Professor of Philosophy at International Christian University, Tokyo. He received his PhD from the University of Edinburgh and specializes in the philosophy of David Hume. He currently serves as President of both the Japanese Society for British Philosophy and the Japanese Association for the Study of Puritanism. He is also a member of the editorial board of the Journal of Scottish Philosophy (Edinburgh University Press).

Séminaire organisé par Monica Manolescu et Rémi Vuillemin, avec le soutien de l’UR SEARCH et de l’USIAS.