A Defense of Hume on Miracles (Princeton Monographs in Philosophy)

• Publisher:   Princeton University Press
• Number Of Pages:   120
• Publication Date:   2005-01-03
• ISBN-10 / ASIN:   0691122431
• ISBN-13 / EAN:   9780691122434

Since its publication in the mid-eighteenth century, Hume's discussion of miracles has been the target of severe and often ill-tempered attacks. In this book, one of our leading historians of philosophy offers a systematic response to these attacks.

Arguing that these criticisms have--from the very start--rested on misreadings, Robert Fogelin begins by providing a narrative of the way Hume's argument actually unfolds. What Hume's critics (and even some of his defenders) have failed to see is that Hume's primary argument depends on fixing the appropriate standards of evaluating testimony presented on behalf of a miracle. Given the definition of a miracle, Hume quite reasonably argues that the standards for evaluating such testimony must be extremely high. Hume then argues that, as a matter of fact, no testimony on behalf of a religious miracle has even come close to meeting the appropriate standards for acceptance. Fogelin illustrates that Hume's critics have consistently misunderstood the structure of this argument--and have saddled Hume with perfectly awful arguments not found in the text. He responds first to some early critics of Hume's argument and then to two recent critics, David Johnson and John Earman. Fogelin's goal, however, is not to "bash the bashers," but rather to show that Hume's treatment of miracles has a coherence, depth, and power that makes it still the best work on the subject.

After reading Earman's HUME'S ABJECT FAILURE, I thought Hume's argument against miracles was dead. Now, after having reading Fogelin's A DEFENSE OF HUME ON MIRACLES, I appreciate the argument more than ever. Fogelin's exposition makes sense of a number of things about "Of Miracles" that always puzzled me. Fogelin effectively argues that Hume never offered an a priori argument, or even a knockdown argument against testimony on behalf on miracles, and shows how Part II of "Of Miracles" is just as essential to Hume's real argument as Part I. A DEFENSE OF HUME ON MIRACLES also contains responses to the recent criticisms of Johnson and Earman, a discussion of how Hume's argument against miracles relates to other aspects of his philosophy, an appendix treating Hume's use and abuse of Tillotson, and a second appendix reprinting "Of Miracles", which the reader will definitely want to have handy. The one thing I felt would have made the book even better was detailed assessment by Fogelin of the merits of the argument he reconstructs, which I thought still makes very interesting and controversial claims about testimony and evidence. Although Fogelin seems sympathetic, it is often difficult to tell whether he is agreeing with Hume altogether, or just pointing out that he did not make one or another mistake commonly attributed to him. But proper exegesis and interpretation must come before assessment, and Fogelin's book goes a long way towards establishing that necessary foundation.

Are you looking for an accessible, clear, and, best of all, accurate account of Hume's argument in "Of Miracles" (section 10 of his *An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding*)? If so, you've found it.

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