Per posterius: Hume and Peirce on miracles and the boundaries of the scientific game (original) (raw)

Naturalism and Wonder: Peirce on the Logic of Hume's Argument Against Miracles

Philosophia, 2001

How should we proceed when confronted with a phenomenon (or evidence which points towards a phenomenon) which baffles us? The term "miracle" is a convenient term on which to hang this question. It has a religious meaning, and the arguments I will be discussing are applicable to the case of deciding, for example, whether to believe in the Judaeo-Christian God, based on the reports of miracles offered by the Bible. However, one can generalise from this case to deeper issues about our attitude to the apparently inexplicable. By the apparently inexplicable I mean that which contradicts our most well-confirmed beliefs. This general question is the theme of this paper

A CRITICAL APPRAISAL OF HUME'S CRITIQUE OF MIRACLES

Miracles, unlike some other events are not events which are logically impossible in the way that it is logically impossible for a circle to be a square. Over the ages, this phenomenon has been understood as a deviation from the usual course of natural events and was interpreted to serve religious purposes. Hume, however identified deviation from nature’s course with violations of natural law and argued that just as a uniform past experience amounts to a proof, there is here a direct and full proof, from the nature of the fact, against the existence of any miracle. If Hume were right we would be forced to reject a large number of scientific developments which have taken place over the last few centuries on the basis that they were not in keeping with natural law. Nevertheless, this essay will systematically make a seasoned effort to appraise Hume’s view in order to show that miracles can occur.

A Critique of Hume's Argument Against Miracles

Perhaps the most influential critique of miracles ever given was by David Hume, the famous Enlightenment skeptic and empiricist from Scotland. In section X of his Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding, Hume levels several arguments against both the possibility and believability of miracles. However, as influential as his arguments have been throughout the centuries, it is the contention of this paper that Hume’s arguments ultimately fall short of their intended goal.

Hume on Miracles: Interpretation and Criticism

Philosophy Compass, 2007

Philosophers continue to debate about David Hume's case against the rationality of belief in miracles. This article clarifies semantic, epistemological, and metaphysical questions addressed in the controversy. It also explains the main premises of Hume's argument and discusses criticisms of them. The article concludes that one's evaluation of Hume's argument will depend on one's views about (a) the definitions of 'miracle' and 'natural law'; (b) the type of reasoning one ought to employ to determine the probability that a particular miracle claim is true; and (c) whether reasonable people proportion their beliefs about the occurrence of miracles to their evidence.

DAVID HUME AND MIRACLE CLAIMS: EVALUATING THE INTERPRETATIVE OPTIONS

A paper written for a seminar on Early Modern Philosophy for the MA in Philosophy from Biola University. David Hume’s essay “On Miracles” continues to garner competing interpretations as to what Hume was arguing. The Traditional Interpretation argues that in Part I of the essay Hume is providing an a priori, “in-principle” argument against the possibility of ever justifying a miracle claim on the basis of human testimony. A Revisionary Interpretation championed by Antony Flew and others calls this Traditional Interpretation into question. This paper examines the case for and against the Traditional Interpretation and finds that the Revisionary Interpretation lacks sufficient evidential basis to overthrow the Traditional Interpretation.

David Hume's Discourse “On Miracles”: An Evaluative Study

International Journal of Scientific and Management Research

In this paper my aim is to discuss Hume's definition of miracles. I shall also address the problem of "causality" and "induction" as themes related to Hume's thesis on miracles, in order to have a better understanding of his position. This paper assumes the existence of God, as revealed in Christian Scripture, but does not have as its purpose the attempt to prove it, although God's existence and the working of miracles in this world are, without doubt, related. Finally, adopting an analytic and critical style, this work will assess the putative worth, if any, of Hume’s anti-miracle arguments, with an advocacy for a synergy between faith and reason, in religious practices.

Hume's Abject Failure,The Argument Against Miracles John Earman

Hume's famous essay on miracles is set in the context of the larger debate that was taking place in the eighteenth century about the nature of miracles and the ability of eyewitness testimony to establish the credibility of such events. The author contents that Hume's argument against miracles is largely unoriginal and chiefly without merit where it is original. To advance the issues so provocatively posed by Hume's essay requires the tools of the probability calculus being developed by Hume's contemporaries but largely ignored by Hume.

Habermas vs Hume: An Argument for the Possibility of Miracles

2016

an eighteenth century empiricist, skeptic, and a widely acclaimed philosopher of the Enlightenment, formulated one of the greatest modern critique, against the reliability and plausibility of religion in general and Christianity in particular in the modern era of philosophy. During his time, religion depended mainly on the testimonies of miracles and it was probably taken for granted that miracles, an ancient religious tradition, was never considered to be an ideology whose truthfulness could be doubted or denied. But Hume, being a skeptic, argued against not just the possibility of miracles but also the truthfulness of the various testimonies and miraculous claims in history. While Hume continues to argue against the possibility of miracles, Christian and theistic philosophers who believe in the historicity and possibility of miracles have also made effort to respond to some of the philosophical questions aimed at denying the possibility of miracles and the plausibility of religious beliefs in general.