Abstract

MOTA PINTO, Silvio. Hume, Kant and Kierkegaard on the foundation of religion. Sig. Fil [online]. 2017, vol.19, n.38, pp.34-61. ISSN 1665-1324.

This paper discusses, first, Hume’s negative thesis about religion; secondly, it deals with Kant’s attempt to refute him with an argument which appeals to a supposed elimination of the conflict between moral virtue and happiness; finally, it revisits Hume’s thesis with Kierkegaard, for whom authentic Christianity is founded on the absurd. This dialectic among the three thinkers is crucial: first, the Scottish philosopher’s thesis that religion rests upon a paradox; then the Kantian antithesis associated with a certain noumenic-ethical reinterpretation of Christianity; and finally Kierkegaard’s restauration of Hume’s position by means of an existential interpretation of Christian faith.

Keywords : Christian existentialism; rational Christianism; paradox of faith; conflict of faculties; antinomy of practical reason.

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