William Lad Sessions is Ballengee 250th Anniversary Professor of Philosophy and Chair of the Philosophy Department at Washington and Lee University. He is author of The Concept of Faith.
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Description
Preface and Acknowledgments 1. Introduction 2. Scene Setting 3. Pamphilus to Hermippus 4. Part 1 5. Part 2 6. Part 3 7. Part 4 8. Part 5 9. Part 6 10. Part 7 11. Part 8 12. Part 9 13. Part 10 14. Part 11 15. Part 12 16. Conclusion Notes List of Sources Index
"According to Sessions (Washington and Lee Univ.), the purpose of this book is to provide a full-scale commentary on the Dialogues, a task that has not been undertaken before. In doing so, Sessions provides an internal interpretation... a close reading of [the] text on its own terms. Sessions argues that, when taken as a whole, the work has far fewer contradictions and inconsistencies than it would when isolated arguments are examined. For example, when one distinguishes natural religious thinking (theology) from natural religious practice (piety), one finds that Hume is more concerned with the latter, which in turn helps explain Philo's apparent backsliding in part 12 of the Dialogues. Sessions also largely succeeds in exploding many unwarranted assumptions about this text, such as the idea that Hume's personal views are to be found in it. Sessions's approach is refreshing in this age of isolated textual analysis, and this book will appeal to all who are interested in Hume and theology. Summing Up: Highly recommended. Lower-division undergraduates through faculty." -W. F. Desmond, Black Hawk College, 2003apr CHOICE "Philosophers and students of philosophy alike will be glad to have this commentary at hand as they read or reread Hume's Dialogues. The list of sources will be a welcome guide to locating other voices in the conversation, many of them hidden away in philosophical journal" -Journal of Religion