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1.9 The Problem of Miracles
One way to support a religion is by appeal to miracles. But Hume argued that, at minimum, miracles could never give religion much support. There are several arguments suggested by Hume's essay, all of which turn on his conception of a miracle: namely, a violation of the laws of nature by God. One argument claims that it's impossible to violate the laws of nature. Another claims that human testimony could never be reliable enough to countermand the evidence we have for the laws of nature. The weakest and most defensible claims that, due to the strong evidence we have for the laws of nature, any miracle claim is in trouble from the get-go, and needs strong supporting evidence to defeat our initial presumptions. In a slogan, extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence. This point has been most applied to the question of the resurrection of Jesus, where Hume would no doubt ask, "Which is more likely – that a man rose from the dead or that this testimony is mistaken in some way?" Or, more blandly, "Which is more likely – that Uri Geller can really bend spoons with his mind or that there is some trick going on?" This argument is the backbone of the skeptic's movement and a live issue for historians of religion. For a critical and technical ( Bayesian) analysis of Hume, see John Earman 's Hume's Abject Failure – the title of which gives you an idea of his assessment. For a rebuttal of Earman's interpretation of Hume, see Robert Fogelin 's A Defense of Hume on Miracles.
One of the oldest and most popular arguments for the existence of God is the design argument – that all the order and 'purpose' in the world bespeaks a divine origin. Hume gave the classic criticism of the design argument, and though the issue is far from dead, many are convinced that Hume killed the argument for good. Here are some of his points:
- For the design argument to work, it needs to be true that about the only time we see order and perceived purpose is when it results from design. But we see order all the time, resulting from presumably mindless processes like generation and vegetation. Design accounts for only a tiny part of our experience with order and "purpose."
- Supposing the design argument worked, it could not (in of itself) support a robust theism; one could easily reach the conclusion that the universe's configuration is the result of some morally ambiguous, possibly unintelligent agent or agents whose method bears a remote similarity to human design.
- For the design argument to reach its logical conclusion, God's mental order and functioning needs explanation, as we could otherwise leave the universe's order, etc unexplained.
- Often, what appears to be purpose, where it looks like object X has feature F in order to secure some outcome O, is better explained by a filtering process: that is, object X wouldn't be around did it not possess feature F, and outcome O is only interesting to us, a human projection of goals onto nature. This mechanical explanation of teleology anticipated natural selection.
For relevant contemporary work, see J. C. A. Gaskin 's Hume's Philosophy of Religion, and Richard Swinburne's The Existence of God; for a view from a philosopher of biology, see Elliott Sober 's Philosophy of Biology, ch. 2.
2 Works
- A Treatise of Human Nature: Being an Attempt to introduce the experimental Method of Reasoning into Moral Subjects. (1739-40)
- Book 1: "Of the Understanding" His treatment of everything from the origin of our ideas to how they are to be divided. Important statements of Skepticism.
- Book 2: "Of the Passions" Treatment of emotions.
- Book 3: "Of Morals" Moral ideas, justice, obligations, benevolence.
- Hume intended to see whether the Treatise met with success, and if so to complete it with books devoted to Politics and Criticism. (It did not meet with success, and so was not completed.)
- Contains reworking of the main points of the Treatise, Book 1, with the addition of material on free will, miracles, and the argument from design.
- An Enquiry Concerning the Principles of Morals (1751)
- Another reworking of material from the Treatise for more popular appeal. Hume regarded this as the best of all his philosophical works, both in its philosophical ideas and in its literary style.
- Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion (posthumous)
- Discussions between fictional characters Cleanthes, Philo, and Demea. They discuss proofs of the existence of God and other fun stuff. Although there's some controversy, most scholars agree that Philo's view comes closest to Hume's own.
- Essays Moral and Political (first ed. 1741-2)
- A lot of Essays, revised a few times during his life. The history of which essays were added or removed when doesn't seem that interesting. "Of the Middle Station of Life," "That Politics may be Reduced to a Science," "Of the Origin of Government," "Of Civil Liberty," "Of Commerce," "Of the Populousness of Ancient Nations," and "On Suicide" (posthumous) to name a few in a modern collection.
- The History of England (1754-62)
- This is more a category of books than a single work, a monumental history spanning "from the invasion of Julius Caesar to the Revolution of 1688." It was also the work which Hume was best known for during his own lifetime, going through over 100 editions. It was considered by many to be the standard history of England until the publication of Thomas Macaulay's own monumental History of England.
