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.
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Produktdetaljer
ISBN
9781400825776
Publisert
2013
Utgiver
Princeton University Press
Språk
Product language
Engelsk
Format
Product format
Digital bok
Antall sider
128
Forfatter