Whately's Historic Doubts about Napoleon's Existence and the Preliminary Question

This book examines Richard Whately's classic book Historic Doubts Relative to Napoleon Buonaparte. After considering its textual development, the analysis focusses on Whately's idea of the ‘Preliminary Question’; the idea that in the debate about Jesus’s miracles there is a more basic question that has been overlooked and which invalidates the debate. It is asked whether the notion of a Preliminary Question might not illuminate other philosophical disputes. Finally, a variant of the Prelimi...