Around the Table with Hume and Friends

During the Q&A after my paper presentation (available here ) and workshop dinner, I noticed that the philosophers there struggled with the fact that Shepherd didn't see miracles as inherently 'special'. They wanted to keep the awe inspiring 'specialness' of miracles to fit in with their own personal preferences and beliefs so, therefore, found it difficult to relate to her definition. I couldn't see the relevance of this subjective approach. For me, it's not about what fits in with my beliefs, or lack of, it's all about what is in the text and how well it's argued.  My points of agreement with Hume: ✔ I agree with Hume's account of adjusting one's degree of assurance to avoid mistakes  ✔ I agree with Hume's aim to "silence the most arrogant bigotry and superstition" to "free us" from it and prevent "superstitious delusion"  ✔ I agree with Hume that when error is introduced, it's due to a lack of under...

Hume (1711-1776) was born in Scotland during the old English style calendar but died under the new English style calendar, which makes his birthday date quite messy. 🗒🤔 Hume's birthday under the Julian (old style) calendar is the 26th April but it's the 7th May under the Gregorian (new style) calendar. The calendars changed in Great Britain (in England, Wales, Ireland, and Britain's colonies) in accordance with the Calendar Act of 1750. However, this was not the case in Scotland which was already using the new style since New Year's Day 1600. So his birthday is the 7th May because he's Scottish born so under the new system. No wonder I haven't celebrated his birth day before! It's all so confusing. Even his name at birth is different - it's David Home, not Hume! 🤷  Over the years, I've been noticing quite a bit of interest on academia.edu in my workshop paper 'Is Hume's Argument against Miracles Flawed?'. I've been wondering if any...

I'm celebrating World Philosophy Day UNESCO and the reasons behind it:  "Background In establishing World Philosophy Day UNESCO strives to promote an international culture of philosophical debate that respects human dignity and diversity. The Day encourages academic exchange and highlights the contribution of philosophical knowledge in addressing global issues. Why a Philosophy Day? Many thinkers state that “astonishment” is the root of philosophy. Indeed, philosophy stems from humans’ natural tendency to be astonished by themselves and the world in which they live. This field, which sees itself as a form of “wisdom”, teaches us to reflect on reflection itself, to continually question well-established truths, to verify hypotheses and to find conclusions. For centuries, in every culture, philosophy has given birth to concepts, ideas and analyses, and, through this, has set down the basis for critical, independent and creative thought. World Philosophy Day cele...

When reading Isserlis’s comment about “telling the right story” 1 it made me think of Hume on aesthetic disagreement. What if two people have differing accounts of how a piece should be played and both think their story is the right one? I remember a video I watched where Barenboim describes two eminent pianists, both of whom he greatly admires, describing the same passage of music in Beethoven’s Piano Sonata no. 7 in D major 2 . One was adamant he felt it was a tragic sounding passage whereas the other felt it expressed humour and saw a comical joke being expressed in the way a pattern of notes were disrupted by pauses 3 . So Barenboim concludes that ascribing adjectives to music is perhaps the most problematic approach! 4 He suggests we should “explain music through sound” instead 5 . Given this common type of aesthetic disagreement, I am inclined to agree with Barenboim. His example of difference in aesthetic judgement reminds me of Hume’s famous example of wine tasting in Don Q...