The Interpretation Of "Religion" In The Empirical Philosophy

Religious thought has emerged in conjunction with philosophy in the history of western philosophy. At the 17th and 18th century, Desim movement is very popular in English. It caused lots of argument, they were debating about the basic problem, such as dogma, religious service, the existence of God. Whether the proofs for the existence of God is from a priori and a posteriori and reasoning? Hume's philosophy is relation to religion from beginning. He had much systematic argument about religion with his empiricism.Hume's empiricism can be traced to Locke and Berkeley's tradition. He observes the experience and studies human cognition, scope, activity, psychological process, behavior and so on. If we only focus on the theory on idea and these contribution, we could lack understanding of Hume's philosophy. Hume describes human mental action and the manner of activity with naturalism. According to this kind of method, it is not a decisive factor to cognition of rational subjects, there are many irrational feeling(appetite, anger, fear, confidence, envy, joy, friendliness, hatred, longing, emulation, pity...) that plays the key role in the human activities. Hume claimed that "there is a self-governed judge between passion and reason", "reason is the slave of passion", he regards it as the basic principle in his moral philosophy. In this sense, his philosophy of religion embodies an unique charm.Hume is not a theologian. He won't prove the holy and authority of dogma, the main idea of his religious philosophy is the examination of philosophy of religious belief and theological demonstration. He explains the origins of religion and animadverts on kinds of theological religious demonstration with philosophical principle. According to Hume's moral philosophy, he criticizes all kinds of proofs for the existence of God with basic principle and facts of experience. Hume is not atheist because he is not against religion. He criticizes religious argument and collapses the foundation of the existence of religion, meanwhile, he admits the existence of God. Because it would provide us with an effective help for human mind and the whole society.In a word, Hume shows two-faced attitude to religion: on the one hand, he believes that it is impossible of any rational basis for religion; on the other hand, he pays attention to religious influence on the human feeling. Thus, it can be seen Hume's religious opinion became original theory of philosophers afterward centuries. At the late of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century, Hume's empiricism was passed down and transcended by pragmatist, William·James. He attempts to provide a new theoretical ground for pragmatism with philosophical study. The choice of human behavior depends on emotion or passion that has an effect on our states of mind and life in the future. His radical empiricism is the same to Hume and his successor. He ascribes philosophy, science and all man's cognition to the range of experience and phenomenon. James is against denial of religious belief and blindfold religious belief. God is not a real "existence", it is not proved that it is meaningless of the existence of God. Take the God as a presumption, it could provide hope and encouragement for people.The key content of my essay is the interpretation of Hume's religion, namely, how to regard the religious problem in the empiricism. The essay divided into three parts. Part one, Hume's empiricism belongs to the theory of idea, the principle of causality and the relation of passion and reason. The influence of passion is the most of all in this part. These theory set up a groundwork for the interpretation of Hume's philosophy of religion. Part two is the most of important in the whole essay because it analyses that how to interpret religion: on the one hand, he explains human origins of religion. On the other hand, he criticizes argument from design and miracle. But Hume don't negate religious belief (God) and interpret religion with positive aspect. The last one narrates that Hume's empiricism and religious thought influence on pragmatist, William·James.