Hume seems to be working with a model of natural laws in which those laws are more...
...fixed and unalterable than is actually the case.
1 of 27
This model would discount many advances in...
...science where natural laws have been seen both to be clarified or changed by exceptions to those laws.
2 of 27
Laws are not perscriptive as Hume suggests but...
...descriptive.
3 of 27
Therefore, natural laws are likely to change as...
...understanding increases.
4 of 27
Who argued that a natural law is the 'best description of how the world works that we currently have,' but which can be modified by new discoveries?
Swineburn.
5 of 27
Given that natural laws are probabilistic, they are not...
...deterministic.
6 of 27
Secondly, Hume doesn't clarify what he means by people of sufficient...
...number/education required to witness a miracle.
7 of 27
What level of education is required before...
...a witness can be believed?
8 of 27
What would Hume say to modern-day...
...claims to miracles?
9 of 27
For example:
Careful, emprical by medical practioners at Lourdes?
10 of 27
What does Vardy argue?
Hume's criticisms only apply to the quality of the witnesses to a miracle rather than the miracle itself.
11 of 27
Also, induction is only true if...
...the principle behind induction is true.
12 of 27
What if miracles are the exception to...
...inductive instances.
13 of 27
Instead of induction predicting an exact future, it predicts...
...probabilites.
14 of 27
Although most but not all testimony may support the uniformity of natural laws, miracles oculd still...
...occasionally (by their nature they are occaisional/unsual) take place.
15 of 27
Why would the improbability of the event mean that it did not or...
..could not ever happen?
16 of 27
What does Ahluwalia argue?
Hume may be guilty of making a jump from 'what is improbable to what is beyond rational acceptance.'
17 of 27
Believers might say that precisely because it is improbable...
...it is more likely that God has intervened in nature.
18 of 27
What does Polkinghorne argue?
God may act in new and unexpected ways as a situation demands.
19 of 27
Who argues that, because laws are probabilistic and not fixed, there could be events that take place that are unlikely but don't actually break the laws of nature?
Swineburn.
20 of 27
How does Swineburn respond to Hume's point that miracles in different religions cancel one another out?
This would onnly be th e case if they were incompatible with one another.
21 of 27
What 2 principles does Swineburn apply to religious experience so is applicable to miracles?
1. Principle of testimony. 2. Principle of credulity.
22 of 27
Which 3 places does he argue that we gain evidence for both miracles and scientif, natural laws?
1.Memory 2. Testimony (of others) 2. Physical traces left behind after the event (for example: the grave clothes of Christ in the tomb.)
23 of 27
From this, he concludes that: "if the evidence is not sufficient to establish the occurence of a miracle...
...then neither is it to establish the certainty of a natural law."
24 of 27
Hume famously rejected accounts of miracles that had been experienced at the grave of Abbe Paris, a well-know jesuit, despite...
...these being witnessed by credible and reputable people.
25 of 27
This is because he argued we have to oppose the 'cloud of witneses,' with...
..the absolute impossibility or mircaulous nature of events to which they relate.'
26 of 27
This may mean that he is...
...judging the case before he looks at empirical evidence.
27 of 27
Other cards in this set
Card 2
Front
This model would discount many advances in...
Back
...science where natural laws have been seen both to be clarified or changed by exceptions to those laws.
Card 3
Front
Laws are not perscriptive as Hume suggests but...
Back
Card 4
Front
Therefore, natural laws are likely to change as...
Back
Card 5
Front
Who argued that a natural law is the 'best description of how the world works that we currently have,' but which can be modified by new discoveries?
Comments
No comments have yet been made