Dialogues concerning Natural Religion

Hume’s three-way conversation between Cleanthes, Demea and Philo over whether the order of the world is evidence of a designer — the argument from design put in its strongest form and then taken apart, with no narrator to tell the reader who won. Hume withheld the book during his lifetime and arranged for it to appear after his death; it was published in 1779.

Why it’s on the list: It opens Philosophy of Social Science, ahead of Adam Smith’s Theory of Moral Sentiments, Polanyi’s Tacit Dimension, Durkheim and Weber. The course gets to method second: first it establishes how far inference from evidence can actually carry you, which is what the Dialogues are a demonstration of.

Where I saw it: Assigned in Philosophy of Social Science on the University of Austin’s Fall 2025 reading list — “65 Texts Our Students Are Reading”, 65 assigned texts across 12 courses, shared by @uaustinorg on November 13 2025 and saved to Kyle’s Apple Note “Books To Read”. The full curriculum is transcribed on UATX Fall Reading List.

Connections

• UATX Fall Reading List — the curriculum this was assigned in.
• The University of Austin — the institution whose course list this is.
• David Hume — the author.
• Religion — the subject under examination.
• Enlightenment — the moment it belongs to.
• Human Nature