Abstract

Author: Świeżyński Adam Title: PHILOSOPHICAL ANALYSIS OF THE CONCEPT OF MIRACLE AS AN “EXTRAORDINARY EVENT” (Filozoficzna analiza pojęcia cudu jako „zdarzenia niezwykłego”) Source: Filo-Sofija year: 2011, vol:.15, number: 2011/4, pages: 939-962 Keywords: CONCEPT OF MIRACLE, THEISM, SUPERNATURAL EVENT, NATURAL SCIENCE Discipline: PHILOSOPHY Language: POLISH Document type: ARTICLE Publication order reference (Primary author’s office address): E-mail: www:It has been common for some time to think of a miracle as a special, extraordinary event possessing a supernatural cause. Such a supernaturalistic account of miracles might be constructed with an eye to apologetic concerns, in the hope that the occurrence of a miracle might provide a defense for theism. The general strategy of such an apologetic appeal is to suggest that a miracle is an event that nature could not produce on its own. It is thought of as an event that is incapable of receiving a natural explanation. Thus the supernaturalist hopes that the occurrence of a miracle will point to the operation of a causal force from outside of nature, i.e. one that is supernatural. The miracle as an “extraordinary event” can be understood in two ways: (1) as a supernatural event and (2) as an event inexplicable by natural sciences. I will seek to show that in (1) we can talk about a supernatural event as a miraculous one only when we mean the fact that it is caused by a supernatural cause (God) and not when we mean that the very event (the way it proceeds) is supernatural. And with respect to (2), I suggest that talking about scientific inexplicability of a miraculous event doesn’t make sense because it results from understanding the miracle as a violation of the laws of nature and that cannot be proven (and there is no need to do it). My concern is to show the difficulties of such an account of miracles, and to show how our concept of the miraculous could do without it