Andrew Vink

The purpose of this paper is to establish the importance of what is sometimes called ‘the literary and dramatic character’ of Hume's Dialogues. This importance is such that not taking this specific character of the Dialogues into account leads to conclusions opposite to the ones Hume, in the special form he gave to his work, was trying to impart to his readers. I will offer my analysis in opposition to the one, voiced by, for instance D. W. Harward, in which ‘the apparent philosophical inconsistencies in the Dialogues are resolved without appeal to Hume's commitment to “literary or dramatic balance,” an appeal few of us find convincing or philosophically interesting’. The last part of Harward's statement is of course only of biographical interest; however, the attempt to offer an interpretation of Hume's Dialogues in which the literary character of the work is wilfully set aside, comes to missing a basic understanding for the man and the work. In what follows I will make this explicit by a number of points, each of which shows the importance of this literary and dramatic character of the Dialogues. In each case the result could not be reached without taking this special character into account.

Introduced in the comics in 1964, the “Dread Dormammu” is the ruler of the Dark Dimension and its magicks, with power comparable to the Vishanti, the mystical beings from whom Doctor Stephen Strange summons his own mystical energy. St. Augustine's journey was not too different from that of Stephen Strange: a man of secular culture who eventually is awakened to his higher calling from forces beyond the physical realm. One of Augustine's key insights into the realities of the human person is an understanding of evil. His definition of metaphysical evil is a standard that still dominates conversations among philosophers centuries after his death. Augustine's conception of natural evil is rooted in his understanding that evil was brought into the natural world by sin. It seems that, being morally evil, Dormammu fits the mold of a classic Marvel villain.