David Hume

Defining Miracle and Associated Issues In this essay, I intend to summarize David Hume’s argument from An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding, that supports his claim that, “[u]pon the whole, then, it appears that no testimony for any kind of miracle has ever amounted to a probability, much less to a proof…” (Hume 67). In addition, I intend to summarize, then, compare and contrast Hume’s argument to the view presented by John Hick in his book Philosophy of Religion. Lastly, I will give my own opinion as to which definition of miracles makes the most sense. In An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding, David Hume defined a miracle as “a violation of the laws of nature” (Hume 58). A result of Hume’s definition of a miracle there has been…

David Hume was Born April 26, 1711, and died August 25, 1776; he was a great Scottish philosopher during the age of enlightenment, or also known as the age of reason. When David was at the age of two his father, Joseph Hume, who was a promoter for Chirnside, passed. This left the custody of David, his older brother, and older sister to his mother, Katherine Lady Falconer. Being a Mother of three children, as well as a widow is indeed backbreaking, but this made Falconer yearn for a bigger…

Brief bio: David Hume was an outstanding philosopher historian, economist, and essayist from Scotland. He was an important figure in the Scottish enlightenment, and, along with John Locke and George Berkeley, one of the three main figureheads of the influential British Empiricism movement. He was born on 26 April 1711 and died on the 25 August, 1776, at the age of 65 either due to bowel or liver cancer. Hume was a fierce opponent of the rationalism of Descartes, as well as an atheist and a…

when placed into context with determinism, the idea that everything happens because something causes it to happen. If someone’s actions are causally determined, could we say he or she had the free will to choose them? As a proponent of soft determinism, Hume would answer yes. For Hume, the seeming incompatibility of determinism and free will is merely a…

HUME’S SKEPTICISM ABOUT OUR ABILITY TO HAVE KNOWLEDGE OF THE WORLD AROUND US AND HIS THEORIES ON CASUALITY AND THE ‘PRINCIPLE OF INDUCTION '. DAVID HUME (1711-1776) is considered as one of the more notable philosophers’ representative of the empiricism. In its critical to the concept of causality, Hume denied it saying that this principle had an existence objective. He supports the idea that cause and effect are factors that not are united by ties needed; if not, these have an arbitrary…

Hume argues that miracles are based purely on experience and that we essentially can’t trust anyone’s judgement because of that. He claims that people are untrustworthy, and because it is impossible to tell whether or not they are making something up or not, we should just assume that they are and we therefore cannot take their word for their experience into consideration when it comes to miracles. A flaw in this argument, however, is that we would have to apply this philosophy to the ideas of…

sense philosophy, and his contemporary, David Hume, who contributes to Personal Identity with both impressions and perceptions. It is in my view, that David Hume’s theory of Personal Identity is the best answer to the question of personal…

Second-order volitions are inadequate for defining the concept of a person. In this paper, I argue that Hume would disagree with Frankfurt, in that a person is to be identified with her second-order volitions, because human action is inconstant and manipulated by temporary feelings. American Philosopher, Harry G. Frankfurt, claimed that second-order volitions defined the concept of a person. He said that it is the want to have the ‘desire’. I will now explain what he meant of this. Second-order…

Hume argues that believing miracles are based solely on testimonial evidence is irrational. Hume believes that we tie testimonies with normally being true or facts, but Hume himself believes that testimony and it being true or the facts varies. Hume says we have no compelling reason to believe in miracles, and certainly not to consider them foundational to any religion. Our knowledge of miracles comes exclusively from the testimony of others who claim to have seen miracles. Since we receive…

While Reid seems to show some signs of respect for Hume, he does have many criticisms of the author’s work. The fourth chapter of Reid’s Active Power in General is a direct critique of Hume’s work. Especially Hume’s thoughts on the powers of the individual. His main problem with Hume was the way he used induction for the Treatise. Hume attempts to treat his thoughts on human abilities like a scientific experiment. Reid notes Hume makes exceptions to this, which is going against the scientific…