Introduction

Hume's Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion (DNR) is, by common consent, both a philosophical and a literary masterpiece. In the genre of philosophical dialogues, at least as written in European languages, it ranks alongside Plato's best; and, closer to its own time, perhaps only Berkeley's Three Dialogues between Hylas and Philonous (1713) and parts of Alciphron or, The Minute Philosopher (1732) approach it. By contrast, Leibniz, for example, is generally regarded a truly ungifted dialogue writer (witness the Nouveaux Essais, finished in 1704); and, as great as Bayle's literary skills could be, few would count his Dialogues of Maximus and Themistius (published posthumously in 1707) among the exemplars. Much the same can be said for Malebranche's many attempts in the genre (between roughly 1677 and 1708). For better luck, one may go to Hume's friend, Diderot, whose Skeptic's Walk (completed in 1747), D’Alembert's Dream (1782), and Jacques le fataliste et son maître (published posthumously in 1796) occasionally (and arguably) exhibit some skill in the compelling delivery of philosophical dialogue; but one will still find Hume's DNR philosophically subtler and richer, even if the encyclopedist did have a certain panache.