EDUQAS Philosophy 1 A,B,C

Empiricism

a theory that states that knowledge comes only or primarily from sensory experience.

Hume’s 5 challenges to the cosmological argument

empirical objection , fallacy of composition , contradictory , no proof the cause is God and infinite regress

What does Cleanthes say?

Every aspect of the natural world bears the marks of apparent design and fits together like a machine. For example, the human eye is brilliantly suited to seeing and seem to have been thought up by a superior intelligence. This designer must have had intelligence in proportion to the magnitude and grandeur of his work and so must have been the God of classical theism Analogy to building a house – house appears well designed and has a builder, the universe appears well designed and so must have a builder – God.

What is Hume or Philo’s criticism of analogies

when we are comparing an entire universe to something like a house, and expecting to be able to draw the same conclusions, the analogy cannot be successful as there is no real point of comparison. We cannot compare our experience of a house with our experience of the universe, as we do not know enough about the universe to make judgments about it.

Philo’s alternative theories

Natural selection and the world being spun like a spider

apprentice god argument

This world might be the last of many failed experiments in ‘design’ by such an apprentice God. Or a God could have made the universe and then abandoned it. We do not know that our universe is well designed as we have nothing to compare it to.

Epicurean Hypothesis

initially the universe was chaotic but the huge amount of time that the universe has existed has resulted in natural forces eventually calming down and ordering themselves into some kind of system

criticism of hume that the world is not faulty

one could say that the world in fact is not faulty. Using John Hick’s parable of the gardener we can see that people interpret evidence differently. Therefore, God could still be a good designer.

criticism that god transcends humans

one could say that we cannot compare our standards to God’s as he is something we do not understand. Indeed Paley talks about God in a transcendent manner, whereas Hume talks about Him in an anthropomorphic way, which many would say is incorrect.

Bishop Samuel Wilberforce

The principle of natural selection is absolutely incompatible with the word of God

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’

a posteriori

refers to knowledge or justification that is based on empirical evidence or experience

a priori

refers to knowledge or justification that is independent of empirical evidence or experience and is known or knowable through reason or intuition alone.

Aquinas’ 1st argument

the argument from motion, which states that everything in the universe is in motion and that this motion must have been caused by something else. This chain of causation cannot go on infinitely, so there must be a first cause, which is God.

Aquinas' 2nd argument

the argument from efficient causality. It states that everything in the world has a cause, and that cause must be something outside of itself. This chain of causality cannot go on infinitely, so there must be a first cause, which is God.

Aquinas' 3rd argument

the argument from contingency. It states that everything in the universe is contingent, meaning it relies on something else for its existence. However, this chain of contingency cannot go on infinitely, so there must be a necessary being that exists independently and is the cause of all contingent beings. This necessary being is what we call God.

Aquinas' 4th argument

the argument of gradation. It states that there are varying degrees of perfection in different things, and that there must be a standard of perfection against which all things are measured. This standard is God, who is the most perfect being.

Inductive argument

The conclusion is likely to be true based off of the true premises

Hume

For something to be impossible it must be self-contradictory . Infinite regress is not self-contradictory and therefore could be true

Craig

Infinity is impossible . half of infinity is still infinity so it’s absurd to think this would work with physical objects . therefore , infinite regress can not exist

Criticism of Craig

The infinite library is a flawed analogy because it involves an example of an infinite number of physical objects, but an infinite regress could be a finite number of physical objects existing over an infinite amount of time. Craig has at most shown the absurdity of physical infinities but not temporal ones, which is what the infinite regress involves.

Time argument against infinite regress

Time started at the big bang theory so there could not be an infinite amount of time before the present moment.

Physicists counter-argument against time argument

There are many different possibilities of how time works , we know very little about how time works and should not make assumptions about it, which the cosmological argument does.

The Kalam argument

P1. Everything that begins to exist has a cause of its existence. \n P2. The universe began to exist (an infinite regress is not possible). \n C1. So, the universe has a cause of its existence.

Craig’s argument for creation

This being that created the universe must be outside time and space since it created time and space. As a timeless, eternal being, God didn’t begin to exist so it’s then no contradiction in claiming that God doesn’t have a cause. These are qualities that God would have, so the cause of the universe is God.

The causal principle

the claim that every event or thing has a cause.

the causal principle is not true by definition

We can imagine something popping into the universe without a cause and the idea of an event doesn’t seem contradicted by the idea of no cause.

Hume’s conclusion on the causal principle

We cannot justifiably claim that the causal principle applies universally. We do not know whether all effects have a cause. All we know is that the effects we have observed have a cause. So the universe could exist without a cause

The fallacy of composition

It is a fallacy to assume that what is true of a thing’s part(s) must be true of the whole. It is possible for what’s true of the parts to not be true of the whole. If all you have knowledge of are properties of the parts of a thing, you cannot infer from that alone that the whole also has those properties.

Cosmological arguments and the fallacy of composition

Cosmological arguments rightly point out that the parts of the universe have a cause or are contingent. However, it commits the fallacy of composition to assume that therefore the universe itself as a whole is contingent or has a cause.

Russell’s conclusion

Due to the fallacy of composition, we have no basis for thinking that notions such as causation even apply to the universe. The universe could be necessary, in which case its explanation would be its necessary existence, or it could simply have no explanation.

Masked man fallacy

we can conceive of the impossible

steady state theory

the universe had always existed and that there is a continuous creation of matter which expands

oscillating universe theory

what we call our universe is just one of the cycles of big bangs and big crunches that has been oscillating forever.

Alan Guth’s inflation theory

The universe came from nothing because it actually is nothing. Gravity has negative energy, the total amount of which in the universe happens to exactly cancel out the positive energy of the matter in the universe, so the total energy of the universe is zero