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Hume and the Miraculous

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 June 2010

Stanley Paluch
Stanley Paluch
Affiliation:
University of Colorado
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Extract

Hume states that a miracle is a violation of the laws of nature. Anyone reporting the occurrence of a miraculous event commits himself to the proposition that the event runs counter to the laws of nature. It is, Hume points out, not enough that the reported event fail to be “conformable” to our experience for us, licitly, to accept the report as of a miraculous event or—if we are the witnesses and reporters—to judge that what we have witnessed is miraculous.

To use one of Hume's examples: the Indian from a warm climate is surprised to discover that water freezes. His previous experience has never been such that he could be prepared for this contingency; the freezing is not conformable to his experience but neither is it miraculous since it is not contrary to that experience.

Type
Articles
Information
Dialogue: Canadian Philosophical Review / Revue canadienne de philosophie , Volume 5 , Issue 1 , June 1966 , pp. 61 - 65
Copyright
Copyright © Canadian Philosophical Association 1966

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References

1 Hume, David, An Inquiry Concerning Human Understanding, ed. Hendel, C. W., (The Liberal Arts Press, N. Y., 1955), p. 122Google Scholar.

2 Hume, op. cit., p. 49.

3 For a presentation of this strand in Hume's essay see Wollheim's, Richard introduction to Hume on Religion, (Collins, London and Glasgow, 1963), pp. 25–27Google Scholar.

4 Hume, op. cit., p. 86.