The Natural History of Religion
E15559
The Natural History of Religion is a philosophical work by David Hume that examines the origins and development of religious belief in human societies through a skeptical and empirical lens.
All labels observed (1)
| Label | Occurrences |
|---|---|
| The Natural History of Religion canonical | 1 |
How this entity was disambiguated
This entity first appeared as the object of triple T124477 — resolving that mention is where its identity was fixed. The disambiguator weighed these candidate entities and picked the highlighted one (or “None”, minting a new entity). This is how homonymy is resolved: the same surface form can point to different entities.
NED1
Entity disambiguation (via context triple)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: The Natural History of Religion Context triple: [David Hume, notableWork, The Natural History of Religion]
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A.
Religion within the Bounds of Bare Reason
Religion within the Bounds of Bare Reason is Immanuel Kant’s major philosophical work on the rational foundations of religion and the relationship between morality and religious belief.
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B.
Three Essays on Religion
Three Essays on Religion is a posthumously published collection of philosophical essays by John Stuart Mill that critically examines religious belief, theism, and the role of religion in moral life.
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C.
Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion
Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion is a philosophical work by David Hume that presents a skeptical examination of arguments for the existence and nature of God through a series of fictional dialogues.
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D.
Treatise on the Emendation of the Intellect
Treatise on the Emendation of the Intellect is an unfinished philosophical work by Baruch Spinoza that outlines a method for improving the mind to attain true knowledge and intellectual perfection.
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E.
Tractatus Theologico-Politicus
Tractatus Theologico-Politicus is a 17th-century philosophical and political treatise by Baruch Spinoza that defends freedom of thought and expression while offering a critical, rational interpretation of Scripture and religion’s role in the state.
- F. None of above. chosen
- G. Unsure - the case is ambiguous/there is not enough information to decide.
NED2
Entity disambiguation (via description)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: The Natural History of Religion Target entity description: The Natural History of Religion is a philosophical work by David Hume that examines the origins and development of religious belief in human societies through a skeptical and empirical lens.
-
A.
Religion within the Bounds of Bare Reason
Religion within the Bounds of Bare Reason is Immanuel Kant’s major philosophical work on the rational foundations of religion and the relationship between morality and religious belief.
-
B.
Three Essays on Religion
Three Essays on Religion is a posthumously published collection of philosophical essays by John Stuart Mill that critically examines religious belief, theism, and the role of religion in moral life.
-
C.
Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion
Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion is a philosophical work by David Hume that presents a skeptical examination of arguments for the existence and nature of God through a series of fictional dialogues.
-
D.
Treatise on the Emendation of the Intellect
Treatise on the Emendation of the Intellect is an unfinished philosophical work by Baruch Spinoza that outlines a method for improving the mind to attain true knowledge and intellectual perfection.
-
E.
Tractatus Theologico-Politicus
Tractatus Theologico-Politicus is a 17th-century philosophical and political treatise by Baruch Spinoza that defends freedom of thought and expression while offering a critical, rational interpretation of Scripture and religion’s role in the state.
- F. None of above. chosen
Statements (48)
| Predicate | Object |
|---|---|
| instanceOf |
book
ⓘ
philosophical work ⓘ treatise ⓘ |
| 18thCenturyWork | true ⓘ |
| arguesThat |
polytheism historically precedes monotheism
ⓘ
religion arises from human passions and fears ⓘ religious belief is shaped by ignorance of natural causes ⓘ |
| author | David Hume ⓘ |
| authorNationality | Scottish ⓘ |
| countryOfFirstPublication | United Kingdom ⓘ |
| criticizes |
anthropomorphic conceptions of the divine
ⓘ
arguments from design in popular religion ⓘ |
| examines |
historical development of religion
ⓘ
psychological origins of religious belief ⓘ social origins of religious belief ⓘ |
| focusesOn | natural, not revealed, aspects of religion ⓘ |
| genre |
empiricist philosophy
ⓘ
philosophy of religion ⓘ religious studies ⓘ |
| hasForm | prose ⓘ |
| historicalContext | Scottish Enlightenment ⓘ |
| influenced |
later philosophy of religion
ⓘ
modern religious studies ⓘ secular critiques of religion ⓘ |
| intendedAudience | educated readers interested in religion and philosophy ⓘ |
| language | English ⓘ |
| mainTopic |
development of religious belief
ⓘ
monotheism ⓘ origin of religion ⓘ polytheism ⓘ religion ⓘ superstition ⓘ theism ⓘ |
| methodology |
historical analysis
ⓘ
psychological observation ⓘ |
| perspectiveOnReligion |
critical of organized religion
ⓘ
naturalistic explanation of religion ⓘ |
| philosophicalApproach |
empiricism
ⓘ
naturalism ⓘ skepticism ⓘ |
| philosophicalTradition |
Enlightenment thought
ⓘ
early modern philosophy ⓘ |
| publicationYear | 1757 ⓘ |
| publisherType | 18th-century philosophical publisher ⓘ |
| relatedWorkByAuthor |
An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding
ⓘ
Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion ⓘ |
| structure | series of essays ⓘ |
| workSeriesContext | Hume’s writings on religion ⓘ |
How these facts were elicited
The pipeline generated the facts above by prompting gpt-5.1 with this entity's name + description and the instruction below.
Instruction
You are a knowledge base construction expert. Given a subject entity and a description of it, return factual statements that you know for the subject as a JSON list of dictionaries(triples), where keys must be "subject", "predicate" and "object". The number of facts may be very high, between 25 to 50 or more, for very popular subjects. For less popular subjects, the number of facts can be very low, like 5 or 10. # Requirements - If you don't know the subject at all, return an empty list. - If the subject is not a named entity, return an empty list. - Include at least one triple where predicate is "instanceOf". - Do not get too wordy. - Separate several objects into multiple triples with one object.
Input
Subject: The Natural History of Religion Description of subject: The Natural History of Religion is a philosophical work by David Hume that examines the origins and development of religious belief in human societies through a skeptical and empirical lens.
Referenced by (1)
Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.