Associação de ideias, paixão e religião em David Hume

Abstract

This monograph investigates how Hume’s theory of perceptions, the principles of association of ideas, the dynamics of the passions, and the role of imagination converge to explain the emergence and development of human religiosity. The general aim of the study is to analyze the articulation between association of ideas, passion, and religion in David Hume, showing how these elements structure a naturalistic interpretation of religious belief. The research employs a theoretical and bibliographical methodology based on the analysis of Hume’s major works, especially A Treatise of Human Nature, An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding, The Natural History of Religion, and the essays “Of Superstition and Enthusiasm.” The results show that the distinction between impressions and ideas provides the foundation for understanding the functioning of the human mind; that the principles of association explain the formation of thought and the transition between perceptions; and that belief is established not through reason, but through the vividness and force of an idea, sustained by habit and imagination. The study demonstrates that primitive passions such as fear, hope, and existential insecurity constitute the psychological engine of religiosity, while imagination, shaped by loose associations and custom, projects invisible agents that give rise both to polytheism and to monotheism. The study concludes that Hume offers a naturalistic explanation of religion, in which religious belief emerges as a product of the ordinary operations of the human mind, subject to vividness, the passions, and habitual associations, rather than as a result of reason or revealed foundations. This approach highlights the unity between epistemology, psychology, and the theory of religion in Hume’s philosophy, and it also illuminates the cognitive and affective mechanisms that continue to structure contemporary religious phenomena.