Hume on Laws and Miracles
Hume famously argues that our past experience of the laws of nature provide us with decisive reason to believe that any testimony of a miracle is false. In this paper, I argue that the laws of nature, as such, give us no reason at all to believe that the testimony of a miracle is false. I first argu...
| Main Author: | |
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| Format: | Electronic Article |
| Language: | English |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
| Journals Online & Print: | Drawer...
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| Fernleihe: | Fernleihe für die Fachinformationsdienste |
| Published: |
Philosophy Documentation Center
[2018]
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| In: |
American catholic philosophical quarterly
Year: 2018, Volume: 92, Issue: 4, Pages: 563-581 |
| Further subjects: | B
BELIEF & doubt
B Hume, David, 1711-1776 B Natural Law B Skepticism B CAUSATION (Philosophy) |
| Online Access: |
Volltext (doi) |
| Summary: | Hume famously argues that our past experience of the laws of nature provide us with decisive reason to believe that any testimony of a miracle is false. In this paper, I argue that the laws of nature, as such, give us no reason at all to believe that the testimony of a miracle is false. I first argue that Hume's proof is unsuccessful if we assume the Humean view of laws, and then I argue that Hume's proof is unsuccessful even if we assume a governing view of laws. I conclude that regardless of which kind of view we adopt, the fact that a miracle is a violation of the laws of nature does not give us any reason to believe it did not happen. |
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| ISSN: | 2153-8441 |
| Contains: | Enthalten in: American catholic philosophical quarterly
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| Persistent identifiers: | DOI: 10.5840/acpq2018829162 |