Title

Hume on Laws and Miracles

Keywords

Hume, laws of nature, miracles

Abstract

Hume famously argues that 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 the 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.

Original Publication Citation

“Hume on Laws and Miracles,” American Catholic Philosophical Quarterly v. 92, n. 4 (2018).

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

2018

Publisher

American Catholic Philosophical Quarterly

Language

English

College

Humanities

Department

Philosophy

University Standing at Time of Publication

Assistant Professor

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