Research Group
in Analytic Philosophy

The Miraculous and the Uncanny

Date: 04 May 2021

Time: 16:00

Place: Online

Abstract

Miracles are frequently understood as violations of (non-repeatable counter-instances to) natural laws, brought about by a deity. Another kind of phenomena, which, following Freud, may be described in terms of the 'uncanny', also involves apparent violations of the natural order. Though related, each involves a different kind of emotional effect. Consider that the same apparently impossible event – say, a 'crying statue' – could be miraculous to one person and creepy and weird to another. In this paper, I compare and distinguish these experiences of the miraculous and the uncanny. At root, what distinguishes them, I argue, are the subject's background beliefs concerning the existence of a supernatural realm and the possibility of its interference in the ordinary course of natural events. To experience an apparent impossibility as miraculous requires that one believes it is counterfactually dependent on the intervention of a (benign) supernatural being. To experience an apparent impossibility as uncanny, on the other hand, requires a background of disbelief in the supernatural, such that it poses an uncertain threat to one's grasp of reality. I illustrate the comparison using examples from Freud and Jung and consider the relationship to changing historical attitudes toward the supernatural.