The Humean Tradition

Abstract

So then, following Hume, let us for the moment understand by a miracle a violation of a law of nature by a god. Hume’s discussion of miracles is contained in section x (‘Of Miracles’) of his Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding [11]. Part 1 of section x is devoted to showing on philosophical grounds that the evidence against the occurrence of any purported miracle is normally liable to be extremely strong and to outweigh by far the evidence in favour of the occurrence. Part 2 is devoted to showing that, although in theory the evidence in favour of the occurrence of a miracle could on occasion outweigh the evidence against it, in practice this never happens.