EDUQAS Philosophy 1B

Inductive arguments – teleological: St Thomas Aquinas’ Fifth Way - concept of governance; archer and arrow analogy. William Paley’s watchmaker - analogy of complex design. F. R. Tennant’s anthropic and aesthetic arguments - the universe specifically designed for intelligent human life.

The teleological argument

The teleological argument

Suggests that the world displays elements of design, with things being adapted towards some overall end or purpose . Such design suggests that the world is the work of a designer – God.

Is the teleological argument a posteriori or a priori ?

a posteriori , it is based on external evidence

What are the four features that suggest the universe has a designer

order , benefit , purpose and suitability for human life . They are unlikely to happen by chance

Aquinas’ 5th argument quote

“The fifth way is taken from the governance of the world. We see that things which lack knowledge, such as natural bodies, act for an end, and this is evident from their acting always, or nearly always, in the same way, so as to obtain the best result.

Hence it is plain that they achieve their end, not fortuitously, but designedly. Now whatever lacks knowledge cannot move towards an end, unless it be directed by some being endowed with knowledge and intelligence; as the arrow is directed by the archer.

Therefore some intelligent being exists by whom all natural things are directed to their end; and this being we call God.”

design qua regularity

The regularity of the universe is evidence of a designer

The arrow and archer analogy

for an arrow to reach its destination it must be directed first of all by the archer. In the same way, ‘natural bodies’ seem to act in a regular fashion to reach a specific purpose.

What is William Paley’s watchmaker analogy

If you were to find a watch on the ground you would assume it had an intelligent designer . Watch = watch maker and world = world maker

The Anthropic Principle

The universe has been structured in such a way to enable human life to appear and be sustained

If it had been developed in a slightly different way then we wouldn’t be here

So therefore there must be a life giving factor that lies at the centre of the whole design on the universe

Tennants SEA ( natural evidence for a designer )

S. The way in which the world has provided precisely the things necessary for sustaining life

A. The world can be analysed in a rational manner and we can deduce its workings

E. The progress of evolution, through natural selection, has led to the emergence of intelligent life – to the degree that intelligent life can observe and analyse the universe that it exists in.

Tennant on the culmination of God’s plan

‘As we look out into the Universe and identify the many accidents of physics and astronomy that have worked together to our benefit, it almost seems as if they Universe must in some sense have known that we were coming.’

The aesthetic principle

For Tennant, the universe is more than just orderly; it possesses a natural beauty beyond that which is necessary to live.

Nothing seen in Darwin’s theory of evolution can explain why humans feel a love and appreciation of natural beauty as well as; art, music, literature .

As we have an omnibenevolent God he made us capable of joy

F.R. Tennant, Philosophical Theology, 1930

‘Nature is not just beautiful in places; it is saturated with beauty – on the telescopic and microscopic scale. Our scientific knowledge brings us no nearer to understanding the beauty of music. From an intelligibility point of view, beauty seems to be superfluous and to have little survival value’