Hume's Miracles
Hume’s strong empirical views can be seen in many area of An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding but I think the most clearly perceived empirical argument is that of his stance on miracles. Through this paper I hope to give a brief summary of Hume’s take on empiricism and then will be able to provide an argument for how Hume had no other choice but to have the beliefs he did on miracles. Hume’s most basic principle is that we are not born with innate ideas, the ideas have an origin. All of our ideas are formed from prior experiences. He calls these initial experiences impressions. Impressions are “our more lively perceptions, when we hear, or see, or feel, or love, or hate, or desire, or will” (Hume p.10). For example, when I see my roommate in the morning there is an impression I get of him. Ideas, on the other hand, are “less forcible and lively” (Hume p.10) than the impressions. So, that same roommate I saw in the morning, if I think about him later on and get a mental image of him is only an idea. One final clarification Hume makes is that impressions need not only be external, as I previously quoted it could be will, desire …etc. All the components of our ideas can come from either outward or inward sentiment, or
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Approximate Word count = 2002
Approximate Pages = 8 (250 words per page double spaced)
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