Hume, miracles, and probabilities: Meeting Earman's challenge

Abstract

The centrepiece of Earman’s provocatively titled book Hume’s Abject Failure: The Argument against Miracles is a probabilistic interpretation of Hume’s famous ‘maxim’ concerning the credibility of miracle reports, followed by a trenchant critique of the maxim when thus interpreted. He argues that the first part of this maxim, once its obscurity is removed, is simply trivial, while the second part is nonsensical. His subsequent discussion culminates with a forthright challenge to any would-be defender of Hume to ‘point to some thesis which is both philosophically interesting and which Hume has made plausible’. My main aim here is to answer this challenge, by demonstrating a preferable interpretation of Hume’s maxim, according to which its first half is both plausible and non-trivial, while its second half sketches a useful, albeit approximate, corollary. I conclude by contesting Earman’s negative views on the originality and philosophical significance of Hume’s justly famous essay

Links

PhilArchive



    Upload a copy of this work     Papers currently archived: 90,221

External links

  • This entry has no external links. Add one.
Setup an account with your affiliations in order to access resources via your University's proxy server

Through your library

  • Only published works are available at libraries.

Similar books and articles

A New Interpretation of Hume's 'Of Miracles'.Chris Slupik - 1995 - Religious Studies 31 (4):517 - 536.
Twenty Questions about Hume's “Of Miracles”.Peter Millican - 2011 - Royal Institute of Philosophy Supplement 68:151-192.
Mackie's treatment of miracles.Richard Otte - 1996 - International Journal for Philosophy of Religion 39 (3):151-158.
Hume's abject failure: the argument against miracles.John Earman - 2000 - New York: Oxford University Press.

Analytics

Added to PP
2009-01-28

Downloads
205 (#89,095)

6 months
2 (#658,848)

Historical graph of downloads
How can I increase my downloads?

Author's Profile

Peter Millican
Oxford University

Citations of this work

Hume and the Independent Witnesses.Arif Ahmed - 2015 - Mind 124 (496):1013-1044.
Humes old and new: Four fashionable falsehoods, and one unfashionable truth.Peter Millican - 2007 - Aristotelian Society Supplementary Volume 81 (1):163-199.
Twenty Questions about Hume's “Of Miracles”.Peter Millican - 2011 - Royal Institute of Philosophy Supplement 68:151-192.

Add more citations

References found in this work

No references found.

Add more references