The Relevance of Hume's Natural History of Religion for Cognitive Science of Religion

Res Philosophica 92 (3):653-674 (2015)
  Copy   BIBTEX

Abstract

Hume was a cognitive scientist of religion avant la lettre. His Natural History of Religion (1757 [2007]) locates the origins of religion in human nature. This paper explores similarities between some of his ideas and the cognitive science of religion, the multidisciplinary study of the psychological origins of religious beliefs. It also considers Hume’s distinction between two questions about religion: its foundation in reason (the domain of natural theology and philosophy of religion) and its origin in human nature (the domain of cognitive science of religion).

Categories

Keywords

Reprint years

DOI

10.11612/resphil.2015.92.3.5

Other Versions

No versions found

Links

PhilArchive

External links

Setup an account with your affiliations in order to access resources via your University's proxy server

Through your library

My notes

Similar books and articles

A Natural History of Natural Theology: The Cognitive Science of Theology and Philosophy of Religion.Helen De Cruz & Johan De Smedt - 2014 - Cambridge, Massachusetts: MIT Press.
Cognitively unnatural science?Barbara Herrnstein Smith - 2012 - In Simen Andersen Øyen & Tone Lund-Olsen (eds.), Sacred Science?: On Science and its Interrelations with Religious Worldviews. Wageningen Academic Publishers.
Is religion natural?Esther Engels Kroeker & Willem Lemmens - 2020 - International Journal of Philosophy and Theology 81 (4):343-350.
Helen De Cruz and Johan De Smedt. A Natural History of Natural Theology: The Cognitive Science of Theology and Philosophy of Religion. Cambridge; London: MIT, 2015. 246 pp. [REVIEW]Laura-Christin Krannich - 2017 - Philosophy, Theology and the Sciences 4 (2):264.
Toward a Cognitive Science of Christianity.Justin L. Barrett - 2012 - In J. B. Stump & Alan G. Padgett (eds.), The Blackwell Companion to Science and Christianity. Wiley-Blackwell. pp. 317-334.
The Natural Foundations of Religion.Mark Collier - 2013 - Philosophical Psychology 27 (5):665-680.
Religion is easy, but science is hard … understanding McCauley's thesis.James A. Van Slyke - 2014 - Zygon 49 (3):696-707.
Religious Belief is not Natural. Why cognitive science of religion does not show that religious belief is rational.Hans Van Eyghen - 2016 - Studia Humana 5 (4):34-44.
A Natural History of Natural Theology: The Cognitive Science of Theology and Philosophy of Religion. By Helen De Cruz and Johan De Smedt. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2015. xvii + 246 pages. US $36.00. [REVIEW]Christoffer H. Grundmann - 2015 - Zygon 50 (4):1024-1026.
A natural history of natural theology: The cognitive science of theology and philosophy of religion. [REVIEW]Wes Skolits - 2017 - Philosophical Psychology 30 (6):849-853.

Analytics

Added to PP
2015-09-04

Downloads
2,250 (#5,251)

6 months
256 (#9,219)

Historical graph of downloads
How can I increase my downloads?

Author's Profile

Helen De Cruz
Saint Louis University

Citations of this work

Problems of Religious Luck: Assessing the Limits of Reasonable Religious Disagreement.Guy Axtell - 2018 - Lanham, MD, USA & London, UK: Lexington Books/Rowman & Littlefield.

Add more citations

References found in this work

Warranted Christian Belief.Alvin Plantinga - 2000 - New York, US: Oxford University Press USA.
Warranted Christian Belief.Alvin Plantinga - 2000 - Philosophia Christi 3 (2):327-328.
Projection and realism in Hume's philosophy.P. J. E. Kail - 2007 - New York: Oxford University Press.

View all 31 references / Add more references