Religion and the ‘sensitive branch’of human nature

While the theses that (1) human beings are primarily passionalcreatures and that (2) religion is fundamentally a product of our sensible nature areboth closely linked to David Hume, Hume’s contemporary Henry Home, Lord Kames(1696–1782), also defended them and explored their implications. Importantly,Kames does not draw the same sceptical conclusions as does Hume. Employinga sophisticated account of the rationality of what he calls the ‘sensitive branch’of human nature, Kames argues that religion plays a central role in the developmentand perfection of human life