Design argument Flashcards
(17 cards)
What is an inductive argument?
Assumptions based of observations
Paley’s design argument is based on 3 particular observations of the world, what are they?
Complexity, regularity and purpose.
Explain what complexity meant to Paley’s argument.
The complexity of the universe shows evidence of design.
Explain what Regularity meant to Paley’s argument.
The universe has regularity: orbits of the comets, moon, planets and the regularity of the season of the year.
Explain what Purpose meant to Payley’s argument.
Our observation of the complexity and regularity of the world therefore implies that the world too has purpose.
Who created the Design argument?
William Paley
What was William Paley’s book?
Natural Theology
Summarise Paley’s analogy of the watch
Paley said that the world is like a watch. The parts of a watch are so intricate that they must’ve been made by a designer. He said that the universe is so intricately designed that there must have been a designer, too. He concluded that this was the God of classical theism.
What was Paley’s quote about the sow, the bitch and the rabbit?
‘In the sow, the bitch, the rabbit, the cat, the rat which have numerous litters, the paps are numerous … the most simple account of this is to refer to a designing creator’
What does design qua regularity mean?
That the order of the universe , is evidence of a God
What does A posteriori mean?
Knowledge gained after sense experience
What was Paley’s second argument?
-The second part of Hayley’s argument for the existence of God is design qua regularity.
-Paley used evidence from Newton’s laws of physics and pointed out that the rotation of the solar system’s planets obey the same universal laws.
What was Paley’s conclusion about an external agent?
Paley concluded that an external agent must be present, and that agent must be God.
What was Hume’s quote that suggested there is not a perfect designer?
‘This world, for all he knows, is very faulty and imperfect… and was only the first rude essay of some infant deity who afterwards abandoned it’
Was Hume’s argument directed at Pale’s?
No, he was criticising the design argument in general not Paley’s as Hume died 26 years before Paley’s book was published.
What was Hume’s book called?
Dialogues concerning natural religion.
