DEMEA'S MYSTIC FIDEISM AND HIS CRITIQUE OF ANTHROPOMORPHISM IN HUME'S DIALOGUES

Abstract

In the Dialogues on natural religion, Hume makes his character De­mea defend some theses that, in my view, can be formulated as follows: i) the assimilation of the traditional divine attributes depends on mystical religious arguments, because, although our reason can prove the existence of God, it cannot tell us anything about its nature; ii) the anthropomorphism involved in Cleanthes' thesis is unacceptable; and iii) the existence of God can and must be demonstrated by a formal argument or an a priori proof. In this paper, I intend to analyze the first two theses jointly, since I understand that one implies the other. I shall argue that Demea's mystical fideism (or religious mysticism) is circumscribed to his Christian religious conception and that his strongest com­mitment to the critique of the design argument concerns the rational theology underlying the proof of God's existence. To do so, I examine the arguments that Demea offers against the anthropomorphism involved in the design argument and its relationship to what I have called mystical fideism.