BBC

A History of Ideas: Hume on Miracles

Aidan Turner on Hume and Miracles

Was it a miracle when Leicester City won the Premier League title? Not according to philosopher David Hume. He felt that a miracle had to break an established law of Nature, otherwise it was simply an extraordinary event. So, Leicester City’s achievement (while extremely unlikely) wasn’t a miracle. And if people claim to have seen something truly miraculous, can we believe them? Again, Hume felt that as eye witnesses can both be fallible and have either conscious or unconscious motivations for wanting the miracle to be true, we should always think twice before believing them.  

Want to hear more on this topic?

Here’s the whole episode from A History of Ideas – Lawyer Harry Potter on eyewitness testimony.

Project scrapbook