Liz Meyers 
Hume’s argument against miracles [PDF ebook] 

Essay from the year 2023 in the subject Philosophy – Miscellaneous, grade: 1.4, University of Luxembourg (Philosophy), course: From Descartes to Hume, language: English, abstract: In our life we are confronted with numerous alleged miracles, like miracle babies, miracle drugs or even inventions and products that are supposed to work miracles.
While this use of the term ‘miracle’ is very broad, often arbitrary, and due to our linguistic usage, miracles embedded in religious context find a very different connotation and impact. Theistic religions are mainly based on miracles, rely on them, or use them to explain, convince and encourage belief in their God. Miracles thereby – should they really exist – evoke different reactions. While some see in miracles how their God manifests himself, others see – if at all – only unusual natural events. In philosophy, the religious use of miracles forms a problem that raises two different questions: What is a miracle? And: Can we ever have good reason to believe that a miracle has actually taken place?
These two questions were addressed by numerous philosophers and theologians, among them the famous Scottish philosopher, economist and historian David Hume. In his 1748 work An Inquiry Concerning Human Understanding, he presents both a definition of miracles and a critique of the credibility of reported miracles, which is until today often referenced in the scientific discussion about miracles. The aim of this paper is to answer the following questions: What is Hume’s argument concerning Miracles? What criticisms can be raised against his approach? And: Is Hume’s position convincing? To answer these, the work will be divided into four different sections. The first segment consists of the introduction and is intended to provide a brief introduction and present the structure of this essay. In the second part, I portray Hume’s definition of miracles followed by his argumentation regarding the credibility of miracles testimonies. The third part contains various points of criticism, which have been expressed over the years. Finally, the results are evaluated, and it is answered to the third question mentioned above.