Dialogues concerning Natural Religion

Why it’s on the list: 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 say who won. Hume withheld it in his lifetime; it was published after his death, in 1779.

Where I heard about it

• University of Austin — assigned to open Philosophy of Social Science on its Fall 2025 reading list (November 2025), ahead of Adam Smith’s Theory of Moral Sentiments, Polanyi, Durkheim and Weber: the course first establishes how far inference from evidence can carry you, then gets to method. Full curriculum: 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