Too Far, Philo.

I love Hume. I honor his exploration of thought and the way in which he presented his wanderings and skepticisms in the dialogue. I will say, though, there were points that caused me to scratch my head.

One these points is found in part V. Philo is arguing on whether or not one can truly know God, His characteristics, and His perfection. He begins to go off on a tangent on whether or not there could be multiple gods and how we can't know whether that is the case.

"But were this world ever so perfect a production, it must still remain uncertain whether all the excellences of the work can justly be ascribed to the workman."

Philo goes on to elaborate on an analogy of a ship, and how the carpenter who framed it could have been a stupid man simply copying other carpenter's art.

"In such subjects, who can determine where the truth, nay, who can conjecture where the probability lies, amidst the great number of hypothesis which may be proposed, and a still greater which may be imagined?"

I understand and appreciate what Philo (who represents Hume himself) is saying here. However, when we continue in this line of thought, then truly no conclusions can be made! I think it's important to explore these ideas and possibilities but at some point you must decide what you believe to be true. Is it many gods? Is it One God? Is it no gods? Whatever the case, no progress can be made if we just remain in this state. There are too many possibilities and the line of thought begins to lead us away from reason and we have no solid ground from which to work.

So does Hume venture too far? I still don't really know. But here are my thoughts on the brilliant skeptic.

P.S. I commented on Francesca's.