HUME, David - CAMPBELL, George.

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A Dissertation on Miracles: Containing An Examination of the Principles advanced by David Hume, Esq; in an Essay on Miracles. First edition of this defence of the provability of miracles, widely held at the time to have defeated Humean scepticism. Campbell's Dissertation, the most elaborate critique of Hume's argument against miracles, helped establish him as one of Christianity's leading apologists in Britain.George Campbell (1719-1796) was among Scotland's most prominent exponents of common-sense philosophy and a leading figure of the Scottish Enlightenment. In the Dissertation, he applies common-sense principles to challenge Hume's assertion that all testimonial claims regarding miracles were inherently unbelievable.Although Hume followed his policy of not engaging in direct disputes with his critics, he wrote to a friend who had forwarded him a copy of the Dissertation that "I have perused the ingenious performance... I could wish your friend had not denominated me an infidel writer, on account of ten or twelve pages... Is a man to be called a drunkard, because he has been seen fuddled once in his lifetime?" (quoted in Mossner, p. 292).

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