Recent books by Dartmouth authors

A Defense of Hume On Miracles

By Robert Fogelin, Professor of Philosophy, Emeritus, and the Sherman Fairchild Professor in the Humanities.

Princeton University Press

2003

Reviewed by Jeremy Presser '04

In his new book A Defense of Hume On Miracles, Robert Fogelin defends one of the 18th century's most profound philosophers from recent attacks on one of his most important pieces. Fogelin's book begins by recapping Hume's arguments on how to evaluate the veracity of claimed miracles. Using academic but readable prose, Fogelin first introduces Hume's theories. Hume argued that testimony is needed to judge whether a miracle has truly happened. Ultimately, determining which testimony is trustworthy provides the greatest difficulty. Hume held extremely high standards for such reliable testimony: He believed that based on his standards, no miracles had yet met his standards and none were likely to do so. Fogelin contends that recent critics have tried to unfairly undermine Hume's theories. Hume is portrayed by some as making circular arguments, like "if a miracle did occur, its occurrence by nature would prove it to not be a miracle." Two in particular, David Johnson and John Earman, have recently published attacks on Hume's theories. Responding to these challenges, Fogelin carefully and systematically addresses how these critics' arguments have mischaracterized Hume's intentions, rendering their challenges irrelevant. An example of Fogelin's analytical writing can be seen in this excerpt, describing the 'reverse' method for evaluating testimony, in which evidence is critiqued based on its lack of common sense and truthfulness:

[C]onsider a report from a "normally reliable source" that President George W. Bush has been observed walking a tightrope over his swimming pool. Most people's initial reaction would be justified disbelief. The sheer bizarreness and improbability of such an event's taking place cast immediate doubt on the force of the testimony offered in its behalf. It seems more reasonable to treat the report as a hoax or perhaps as a misunderstanding of a political metaphor. This is a simple, and I believe uncontroversial, example of the reverse method at work.

Walking The Tightrope Of Reason: The Precarious Life of a Rational Animal.

By Robert Fogelin, Professor of Philosophy, Emeritus, and Sherman Fairchild Professor in the Humanities

Oxford University Press

2003

Review by Christopher Moss '07

In Walking the Tightrope of Reason, Robert Fogelin explores the human tendency to take extreme and often dangerous positions when trying to make sense of the universe. He begins by looking at the law of noncontradiction. The law says that something cannot be two opposing things at once. Fogelin argues both for and against this law in his first two chapters. By presenting both sides of the argument, Fogelin underscores some of the problems associated with philosophical inquiry. In the next chapter he explores two responses to this problem. The first one, dialectical illusion, an idea first introduced by Immanuel Kant, is the idea that when confronted with philosophical questions we can't solve, we create answers even if these answers do not adequately answer the question. The second response is skepticism. While Fogelin notes that skepticism is necessary to a degree, he also points out that it can be dangerous if taken to extremes. Reflecting on the works of thinkers like Kant, David Hume, Ludwig Wittgenstein, Friedrich Nietzsche and Walt Whitman, Fogelin offers what he calls "modest suggestions" in the final chapters to confront the problems introduced in the beginning of the work:

I have suggested that the only thing - or at least the chief thing - that protects us from falling into incoherence, from being captured by dialectical illusion, and from succumbing to an abject skepticism is becoming engaged in the world in ways that put our thoughts under constraints that are not themselves further thoughts. This is an inherently fallible, risky, and often disappointing activity. It is not, however, an inherently dull activity. It is often fun and, at its best, high adventure.