The Super-Miracle-Argument

• Applicant: Professor Dr. Andreas Hüttemann
• Subject Area: Theoretical Philosophy
• Term: since 2024
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 541469863

A major debate in contemporary metaphysics of science concerns the question of whether scientific practice requires the assumption of irreducible modal facts. Do we, in order to do justice to our practice of explaining, predicting, experimentally intervening, etc., have to assume that there are, for example, facts or events or properties that enforce the occurrence of other facts or events or properties? Humeanism denies that such irreducible modal facts must be assumed, while non-Humeanism thinks it must postulate such irreducible modal facts. The proposed project aims to analyse a hitherto little considered part of scientific practice and to make it fruitful for this debate. More precisely, it is about developing a novel argument for the existence of modal facts on the basis of a certain analysis of inductive reasoning - the theory of material induction as developed by John Norton: Without the assumption of modal facts, the success of material induction would be a miracle (the super miracle argument).

• DFG Programme: Research Grants