Metaphysics of God

What is another way to describe design arguments?

Teleological arguments

What form is Hume’s design argument?

analogy

What is the principle of design arguments? What kinds of arguments are they?

Draw on the world around us and their designs which leads to the conclusion that God must exist.

a posteriori, inductive

How does design qua purpose relate to design arguments?

‘designed for a purpose,’ only a minded designer could achieve this because purpose indicates designer

Outline Hume’s design argument

1. In the organisation of parts for a purpose, nature resembles the products of human design

2. similar effects have similar causes

3. The cause of the products of human design is an intelligent mind that intended the design

4. Therefore, by analogy, the cause of nature is an intelligent mind that intended its design.

How does Hume criticise his design argument by claiming that the analogy is weak?

The comparison drawn between manmade creation and nature is weaker than that between different natural occurences’s, e.g. a carrot and an eye

What is Hume’s argument from a unique case?

The universe is a unique case and should not be compared to anything else.

We have never experienced world-making like we know that watches are designed because we can observe the process. The analogy moves between something we can know in its entirety (a watch/man-made machines) to something that we cannot (like the universe.)

How could trial and error criticise the design argument?

Man-made objects are designed through trial and error, surely there is not a string of abandoned worlds before God got it right in our one. There is only one observable universe so we cannot compare it to human creation.

How can the idea of polytheism criticise the design argument?

If the world has been designed by God, why should we assume that there is only one God? Human creations often involve a team with different skills, the world could have been made the same way.

How can spatial disorder criticise the design argument?

The world is not one of spacial order but spacial disorder. Humans have redundant appendixes and ostriches have wings, why would God create this world? Is the designer not omnipotent or omniscient?

What are the differences between Paley’s and Hume’s design arguments?

• Hume’s is an argument from analogy, Paley’s isn’t.

• Paley points out the necessary separation of the designer and the designed object, Hume does not.

Why is Paley’s argument not from analogy?

He does not compare nature to human creations, he applies his principles directly to nature.