Hume and the Problem of Miracles: A Solution

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-viii

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2. Hume’s Analysis of Causation in Relation to his Analysis of Miracles

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 1-4

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   2. Hume’s Account of a Posteriori Reasoning

      • Michael P. Levine

      Pages 5-12

   3. Miracles and Reasoning Based on Experience

      • Michael P. Levine

      Pages 13-22

   4. The Indian and the Ice: Understanding and Rejecting Hume’s Argument

      • Michael P. Levine

      Pages 23-36

   5. A Better but Less Interesting Humean Argument

      • Michael P. Levine

      Pages 37-52

   6. Miracles and the Logical Entailment Analysis of Causation

      • Michael P. Levine

      Pages 53-64

   7. Are Miracles Violations of Laws of Nature?

      • Michael P. Levine

      Pages 65-74

3. Back Matter

   Pages 75-86

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4. Can Anyone Ever Know That a Miracle Has Occurred?

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 87-91

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   2. What is Involved in Knowing That a Miracle Has Occurred

      • Michael P. Levine

      Pages 93-102

   3. Hume’s Account of Tillotson and the Alleged “Argument of a Like Nature”

      • Michael P. Levine

      Pages 103-122

   4. Testimony and Sensory Evidence: Reasons for Belief in Miracles?

      • Michael P. Levine

      Pages 123-132

   5. Tillotson’s Argument: Its Application of Justified Belief in Miracles

      • Michael P. Levine

      Pages 133-151

   6. Conclusion: Miracles and Contemporary Epistemology

      • Michael P. Levine

      Pages 152-188

5. Back Matter

   Pages 189-200

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6. Back Matter

   Pages 201-212

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This book developed from sections of my doctoral dissertation, "The Possibility of Religious Knowledge: Causation, Coherentism and Foundationalism," Brown University, 1982. However, it actually had its beginnings much earlier when, as an undergraduate at the University of Virginia, I first read Hume's "Of Miracles" and became interested in it. (Fascinated would be too strong. ) My teacher put the following marginal comment in a paper I wrote about it: "Suppose someone told you that they had been impregnated by an angel whispering into their ear. Wouldn't you think they had gone dotty?" She had spent time in England. I thought about it. I agreed that I would not have believed such testimony, but did not think this had much to do with Hume's argument against belief in miracles. What surprised me even more was the secondary literature. I became convinced that Hume's argument was misunderstood. My main thesis is established in Part I. This explains Hume's argument against justified belief in miracles and shows how it follows from, and is intrinsically connected with, his more general metaphysics. Part II Part I. It should give the reader a more complete understanding builds on of both the structure of Hume's argument and of his crucial and questionable premises. Chapters 5 and 11 are perhaps the most technical in the book, but they are also the least necessary. They can be skipped by the reader who is only interested in Hume on miracles.

• David Hume
• epistemology
• experience
• knowledge
• metaphysics
• reason

• Department of Philosophy, University of Western Australia, Australia

  Michael P. Levine

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