Unit 1 Flashcards
(24 cards)
What type of argument is the teleological argument
- a posteriori: based on experience of the world, perception and interpretation
- inductive reasoning: a form of proof based on previous experience
- based on empirical basis
Aquinas’ 5th way
- A form of the design argument in which he argues that everything seems to work towards an ‘end’ or ‘telos’
- these objects cannot achieve this end by themselves, so they’re guided by an intelligent being, just as ‘the arrow is directed by the archer’
- order in the world cannot be self-explanatory, something that ‘lacks intelligence’ cannot act with intelligence
- must be an intelligent being - god
Premises for the design argument
P1: man made things in the world have been created by a designer with a purpose in mind
P2: the world looks as though it has been designed for a purpose because it works so well and has many intricate, complex parts
C: the world must have had a designer, this designer must have been god, therefore god exists
Paley
- argument in response to humes criticism of Aquinas’ argument
- uses the analogy of a watch, both the watch and the world show PURPOSE and DESIGN, which isn’t by accident
- the watch has been designed to work towards an end (telos) and needs a designer
- paley argues that the world works together towards the end of existence and therefore needs a designer
Swinburne - teleological
- it is more probable that god exits than he doesn’t
- the universe could be a brute factor or explained by science but god is a better explanation
- CUMULATIVE ARGUMENT: accumulating evidence that makes gods existence more likely to be true (very existence of the universe, order of the universe, existence of consciousness, humans opportunity to do good, patterns of history, miracles, religious experience
- co presence and regulation of succession (specifics and function)
F R Tennant - teleological
- there is a huge amount of beauty in the world that isn’t necessary for life (cannot be explained by science)
Humes criticisms for aquinas
- casual fallacy
- weak analogy
- unknown cause
- anthropomorphism
- tells us nothing about the designer
- based on part, not whole
J S Mill (teleological)
The existence of suffering and evil points to bad design
Dawkins (teleological)
- blind watchmaker
- flawed universe
Darwin (teleological)
- theory of evolution
- survival of the fittest
- natural selection
Aquinas cosmological argument
- first 3 of his 5 ways (summa theologica)
- first way: argument from motion: things are in motion and can’t move themselves, this forms a chain of ‘moved’ and ‘moving’, which cannot have an infinite regress, there must be an ‘unmoved mover’
- second way: argument from efficient cause: everything has a cause, there must be a necessary ultimate cause
- third way: argument from contingency and necessity: the world is made up of contingent beings, must’ve been created by a necessary being, this must be god
Leibniz - principle of suffience reason
Only sufficient reason comes from outside our world
Kalam cosmological argument
P1: the world must have a cause just as everything has a cause
P2: the world can’t have been created out of nothing
P3; the world must have been created at a particular point in time
P4: the cause of the world must be something which isn’t caused itself
P5: this being must be god
C: therefore god exist
Kants criticisms of the cosmological argument
- Aquinas’ argument from motion is flawed as it is not universal
- infinite regress is not necessarily illogical
- why should it be the god of classical theism?
Russells criticisms (cosmological argument)
- following this logic god must have a cause
- it is possible the world could’ve always existed
- no such thing as a necessary being
- the universe just is, it is a BRUTE FACT
Humes criticisms of Aquinas’ argument
- Rejects necessary existence
- Cannot assume empirically that everything has a cause
- The world itself could be necessary
- Just because part appears caused doesn’t mean the whole world is
Anselm
- uses deductive reasoning, if premise are true, conclusion is logically necessary
P1: god is the greatest conceivable being (in the mind)
P2: to be the greatest conceivable being, god must exist in reality
C: god exists, using a priori reasoning
F: he has necessary existence
Guanilo
- applies Anselms logic to other things, like a perfect island, to highlight what he viewed as flaws
Descartes
Descartes used ‘essence’ to mean something fundamental to what something is e.g. 3 angles are part of the essence of a triangle
P1: god is perfect
P2: existence is a perfection
C: therefore god exists
Kant - ontological argument
- rejects the argument as it treats existence as a predicate
- a predicate is an attribute or quality of something
- knowing something existence tells us nothing about the thing
- non-existence of god is conceivable
Russell - ontological
- things should only be described as existing if we can see they exist
- all ontological argument are ‘bad grammar’ and they make a ‘linguistic mistake’ without realising
Malcolm
- says there are 3 options: god is necessary, god doesn’t exist, or god is contingent, rejecting the last 2
Plantinga
- aimed to strengthen Malcom’s modal and restate it with ‘maximal greatness’
- there is a possible world with a maximally great entity
- a maximally great being would exist in all possible world
- therefore this maximally great being exists in this world
Humes criticisms
- notion of necessity has no meaning
- if it did - why just god?
- other things could also be considered necessary
