George Campbell (1762)
George Campbell — Principal of Marischal College, Aberdeen, and Hume’s own friend and correspondent
Measured, respectful of his opponent, and entirely unimpressed by the argument regardless.
Every stat is a checkable fact about the actual book, not a designer's mood. Bars are drawn against the highest value any book reaches.
The game's own explanation, as a reader sees it in the backpack.
Short, and aimed at one man: Hume read it and respected it, which is not something he said of most replies.
Meets Hume on his own epistemological ground rather than Grotius’s evidential one — the psychology of belief itself, not the count of the witnesses.
Campbell names the circle in Hume’s own definition and does not need a second argument once it is named.
Fairly quick. Published in Aberdeen in 1762, while Hume was still alive to read it.
George Campbell answered Hume in two ways. First, we trust testimony by nature. A child believes what it is told long before it has experience to weigh. Second, Hume’s uniform experience against miracles is only uniform if every miracle report has already been counted false, which is the very question being argued.
By levelling up. A book that develops keeps what it knew and learns the rest on its new schedule.
| Lv | Move | Type | Cat. | Pwr | Acc | PP |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Random Verse | Bible | Argument | 10 | 100% | 30 |
| 30 | Chapter… | Bible | Scripture | — | — | 12 |
| 39 | Affirm | — | Status | — | — | 1 |
| 40 | A Debt Testimony Never Owed | Rationality | Argument | 76 | 100% | 10 |
| 44 | As Natural As A Hammer On Clay | History | Argument | 94 | 100% | 12 |
| 50 | Antecedent to Experience | Rationality | Argument | 88 | 100% | 10 |
| 57 | It Would Refute Itself | Rationality | Argument | 90 | 100% | 10 |
| 64 | A Distinction Artfully Suggested | History | Argument | 92 | 100% | 10 |
How to read these. In Scholar’s Dream, books argue with each other. Each thing a book can do in a debate is a move, and most moves carry a real quotation — the words the book puts on the table when it uses that move.
Strong against lists the opposing books and arguments a move was written to answer. Used against one of them, it hits much harder than usual: ×2 means twice the normal force, ×4 four times. It is the game’s way of saying: this is the sentence that answers that argument. Open an entry to read why.
“For in him we live, and move, and have our being. As some of your own poets have said.”
Acts 17:28 (WEB) — Paul at the Areopagus, quoting the Athenians’ own poets back to them.
In the gamePick the part of the opponent’s case that is true and affirm it. That point can no longer be used against you, and the opponent’s Defend falls sharply. It deals no damage. Affirm something false and you have only agreed with an error.
“Testimony is not entitled to the least degree of faith, but as far as it is supported by such an extensive experience as, if we had not had a previous and independent faith in testimony, we could never have acquired.”
David Hume, as restated by George Campbell, A Dissertation on Miracles (1762), public domain.public domain
In the gameCampbell states Hume’s principle plainly and shows the circle. Hume says testimony is trustworthy only as far as experience supports it. But our experience was largely built by trusting testimony in the first place.
“Children adopt, blindfold, all the opinions, principles, sentiments, and passions of their elders, as well as credit their testimony: Nor is this more strange, than that a hammer should make an impression on clay.”
George Campbell, A Dissertation on Miracles (1762), public domain.public domain
In the gameHume treats trust in testimony as something built up from experience, weighed and discounted like any other inference. Campbell answers that a child believes what it is told long before it has any experience to weigh it against — testimony is native ground, not a conclusion reasoning ever had to earn.
Hume defines a miracle so no testimony could ever outweigh it. Campbell answers that the trust behind ALL testimony, everywhere, came before any experience was gathered to weigh it — Hume has the psychology backwards.
Hume defines a miracle so no testimony could ever outweigh it. Campbell answers that the trust behind ALL testimony, everywhere, came before any experience was gathered to weigh it — Hume has the psychology backwards.
“Testimony has a natural and original influence on belief, antecedent to experience… the earliest assent, which is given to testimony by children, and which is previous to all experience, is in fact the most unlimited; that, by a gradual experience of mankind, it is gradually contracted, and reduced to narrower bounds.”
George Campbell, A Dissertation on Miracles (1762), Part I § 1, public domain. (trimmed quote — opening capital ours.)public domain
In the gameHume has trust in testimony built up out of experience, weighed and discounted like any other inference. Campbell points at the order it actually happens in: a child believes first and learns to doubt afterwards, and the doubting is what experience teaches, not the believing.
Russell has faith meaning belief held without evidence, and treats trusting a report as a thing you build up to. Campbell points at the order it happens in: a child believes first and learns to doubt afterwards, and the doubting is what experience teaches.
“Is that which is contrary to experience, a synonymous phrase for that which implies a contradiction? If this were the case, there would be no need to recur to experience for a refutation; it would refute itself.”
George Campbell, A Dissertation on Miracles (1762), Part I § 2, public domain.public domain
In the gameCampbell’s point: if a miracle were a contradiction in terms, no experience would be needed to rule it out. Hume uses the word in two senses at once. Make it mean one thing at a time and his argument falls apart.
Spinoza rules the miracle out as a contradiction of the order God decreed. Campbell takes that at its word: if it really were a contradiction nobody would need to consult experience to reject it, because a contradiction refutes itself and never needs looking at.
“Here a distinction is artfully suggested, between what is contrary to experience, and what is not conformable to it. The latter he allows may be proved by testimony, but not the former.”
George Campbell, A Dissertation on Miracles (1762), Part I § 2, public domain.public domain
In the gameHume allows that testimony can establish what is merely unheard of, and never what is contrary to experience. Campbell reads him through for the difference and cannot find one that is doing any work: both phrases mean the same thing in his hands — something nobody has seen yet.
Hume lets testimony establish what is merely unheard of and never what is contrary to experience. Campbell reads him through looking for the difference and cannot find one doing any work — in Hume's own hands both phrases mean the same thing, something nobody has seen yet.
Hume lets testimony establish what is merely unheard of and never what is contrary to experience. Campbell reads him through looking for the difference and cannot find one doing any work — in Hume's own hands both phrases mean the same thing, something nobody has seen yet.