Hume’s Argument from Design

In Hume's Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion we are introduced to three characters that serve the purpose to debate God and his nature, more specifically, what can mankind infer about God and his nature. The three characters; Demea, Philo, and Cleanthes all engage in a debate concerning this question and they all serve the purpose of supporting their views on the subject. It is the "argument from design" put forth by Cleanthes that is the focal point of the discussion, and it is Demea and Philo who attempt to discredit it.

It is Cleanthes who gets the ball rolling in Part II of Hume by laying out his "argument from design." Cleanthes believes that there is ample evidence in the nature that surrounds us to draw conclusions on what God is like. Cleanthes compares the surrounding world as one great "machine." He goes on to discuss how this "machine" is "subdivided into an infinite number of lesser machines, which again admit of subdivisions to a degree beyond what human senses and faculties can trace and explain."(837) Cleanthes goes on to suggest that these "machines" are all adjusted to each other in such a way that it resembles the productions of man and human design. By this Cleanthes is saying that nature is organized much the same way as a machine built by man. He states this by saying "the Author of Nature is somewhat similar to the mind of man, though possessed of much larger faculties, proportioned to the grandeur of the work which he has executed."(837) Cleanthes main emphasis is not the question of the intelligent designer itself, but rather that the designer similar to mankind. He makes his assumption concrete by saying "By this argument a posteriori, and by this argument alone, do we prove at once the existence of a Deity and his similarity to human mind and intelligence."(837)

In other words Cleanthes believes that we need to look no further than this analogy to prove that God is similar to a human designer, only much more perfect due to the perfection we see in the system of nature.

It is this inference by Cleanthes that both Demea and Philo have problems with. In turn they spend the rest of Hume's Dialogues rebutting Cleanthes claims. However, Demea and Philo do differ from each other on why they believe Cleanthes' "argument from design" is flawed.

Demea firmly believes that God is so outside the realm of human understanding that we could never understand him. In Part III Demea states, "The infirmities of our nature do not permit us to reach any ideas, which in the least correspond to the ineffable sublimity of the divine attributes."(843) This clearly illustrates Demea's standing and he follows this core belief in all of the objections he makes to the arguments put forth by both Cleanthes and Philo alike. Demea's first argument against Cleanthes comes directly after the explanation of the "argument from design" in Part II. Demea disapproves of Cleanthes reasoning because Cleanthes' arguments are a posteriori. He objects to this because he believes that human experience is necessary in explaining the nature of god. "Can we reach no further in this subject than experience and probability?"(837) This is evidence of Demea's insistence that understanding God is outside the grasps of standard human experiences and his nature cannot be explained by looking at ours. This line of reasoning continues in Part III when Demea responds to Cleanthes analogy of a book to illustrate the similarities of the mind of man and that of God. Demea states that when reading a book we can comprehend the ideas put forth by an author, but we can never comprehend the riddles of the universe put forth by a Deity because, in the words of Demea, "his ways are not our ways." Demea than uses this inference by Cleanthes to state another of his greatest objections with the "argument from design." Demea says, " By representing the Deity as so intelligible and comprehensible, and so similar to human mind, we are guilty of the grossest and most narrow partiality, and make ourselves the model of the whole universe."(839) This statement illustrates the underlying disdain Demea has for Cleanthes arguments that God is like man.

Unlike Demea, Philo more clearly represents your everyday skeptic by finding fault and inconsistencies in the reasoning of Cleanthes. Philo's initial argument against Cleanthes reasoning is that comparing something made by man such as a machine or house to a universe made by God is dangerous logic. Philo sees the assumptions of nature and God put forth by Cleanthes is like claiming to know how the entire human body works through the "growth of a hair."(839) Simply put Philo believes the whole "machine" argument is way to simple