1719 – 1796

George Campbell

Worth knowing

A Scottish minister and principal of Marischal College, Aberdeen.
His Dissertation on Miracles (1762) answered David Hume's argument against miracles. We rightly trust testimony long before we have experience to weigh it by, and Hume's appeal to "uniform experience" assumes what it sets out to prove.
He and Hume corresponded politely about the book.

In Scholar’s Dream, George Campbell has one book

A Dissertation on MiraclesGeorge Campbell (1762)History

George Campbell’s quotes in the game

Every quotation from George Campbell that a player meets in Scholar’s Dream, attached to the move that says it. Or see them as a plain list →

In Scholar’s Dream, books argue with each other, and each thing a book can do in a debate is called a move. Every quote below is spoken by one of those moves. Open “How it works in the game” under a quote to see the move, which books learn it, and which arguments it answers best.

“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

How it works in the game: the move A Debt Testimony Never Owed

RationalityArgument · power 76 · 100% accurate

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.

Learned byA Dissertation on Miracles (Lv 40)

“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

How it works in the game: the move As Natural As A Hammer On Clay

HistoryArgument · power 94 · 100% accurate

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.

Learned byA Dissertation on Miracles (Lv 44)

Strong against

×4A Uniform Experience Against Itan argument · why?

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.

×4An Enquiry Concerning Human Understandinga book · why?

“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

How it works in the game: the move Antecedent to Experience

RationalityArgument · power 88 · 100% accurate

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.

Learned byA Dissertation on Miracles (Lv 50)

Strong against

×2.5Why I Am Not a Christianan argument · why?

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

How it works in the game: the move It Would Refute Itself

RationalityArgument · power 90 · 100% accurate

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.

Learned byA Dissertation on Miracles (Lv 57)

Strong against

×2.5Miracles Are Impossiblean argument · why?

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

How it works in the game: the move A Distinction Artfully Suggested

HistoryArgument · power 92 · 100% accurate

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.

Learned byA Dissertation on Miracles (Lv 64)

Strong against

×2.5A Uniform Experience Against Itan argument · why?

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.

×2.5An Enquiry Concerning Human Understandinga book · why?

Words George Campbell’s books borrow from others

Moves these books can learn whose quotation comes from somebody else. The citation on each one names who actually said it.

“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.

How it works in the game: the move Affirm

Status

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.

Learned byA Dissertation on Miracles (Lv 39)

Who else was alive

George Campbell against everyone else in the game.

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Boethius Boniface John of Damascus Daniel of Winchester Timothy I Alcuin of York Pope Leo III Eulogius of Córdoba Paul Alvaro of Córdoba Rimbert Humbert of Silva Candida Michael Cerularius Peter III of Antioch Anselm of Canterbury Ari Thorgilsson Ebo and Herbord Thomas Aquinas John Wyclif Lorenzo Valla Girolamo Savonarola Pope Paul III Martin Luther Miles Coverdale William Tyndale Emperor Charles V John Calvin Teresa of Ávila John Jewel The Council of Trent The English exiles at Geneva Hugo Grotius René Descartes John Owen Blaise Pascal John Bunyan Louis XIV of France Pierre Bayle Joseph Butler Jonathan Edwards Thomas Reid George Campbell William Paley John Henry Newman J. C. Ryle Friedrich Nietzsche James Orr B. B. Warfield Herman Bavinck W. R. Sorley James Denney J. Gresham Machen

Solid bar = firm dates · faded = approximate51 authors sit outside this window