Can Hume Get A Witness?

Can Hume Get A Witness? – Ep.314 – Miracles – Hume and the Philosophic Questions – Part 3

Patrick March 17, 2025

Looking at David Hume’s philosophy on miracles, now we find ourselves not seeing Hume interact with miracle claims, but questioning if someone can even be a witness to a miracle. Can Hume get a witness? It seems his standard is both circular and redefining of key terms. We see that taking Hume at his standard not only allows for no inductive evidence to come in but leads to some repercussions in daily life that would destroy most of our knowledge. So, ya know, the small things.

Timeline:

00:00 – Introduction
03:14 – Hume’s Epistemology – Deductive Rather Inductive
04:25 – Begging The Question With Uniformity Of Nature
06:38 – Hume Wanting Testimony – No! Not That Testimony!
07:56 – Surveying Witnesses And Their Interpretations Of Miracles
10:14 – Hume’s Circularity With Human Experience & Uniformity Of Nature
12:31 – Hume’s Circularity Of What Makes For A Good Witness To Miracles
15:00 – Dismissing What’s Never Been Seen With People Who Have Claimed To See It
15:57 – Grant Hume His Standard And See What Happens – Ut Oh!
18:50 – We All Rely On Testimony To Live & In Life
20:35 – Conclusion