PHIL 101 Study Guide - Midterm Guide: Blind Chance, Cosmological Argument, Intelligent Designer
Cosmological Argument - start looking at the universe
Aquinas’ Argument First Way
1: There exist some things that change.
2: Anything that changes is made to change by something distinct from it.
3: A series of changes cannot regress infinitely
4: Hence, there must be a first cause of change that itself cannot be changed
Conclusion: This unchangeable first cause people understand to be/call God
Aquinas’ Second Way
● “In the world… efficient causes come in series”
● “We… cannot find… that something is its own efficient cause”
● “The series of efficient causes cannot possibly go back to infinity”
● “We must therefore posit a first efficient cause”
● “...which everyone understands to be God”
Aquinas’ Third Way (arg. From contingent things)
● “Some things… can either exist or fail to exist”
● “It is impossible… that everything has being of this sort”
● “There must be something in the world that exists of necessity”
● “Either this necessity is or is not caused by something else”
● “The series… cannot possibly go back to infinity”
● “Must therefore posit something that is necessary per se”
● “This everyone understands to be God”
● It is impossible for contingent things to not be preceded by something that is necessary
● The idea that nothing can come from nothing
● If you agree, then there can’t have been something contingent.
● Something necessary existed to make everything else exist
1st way -> unchanged changer
2nd way -> first efficient cause
3rd way -> necessary something
Hume’s (or Cleanthes’) Argument Against Aquinas
● “Nothing is demonstrable, unless the contrary implies a contradiction. Nothing, that is
distinctly conceivable, implies a contradiction. Whatever we conceive as existent, we can
also conceive as non-existent. There is no Being, therefore, whose non-existence
implies a contradiction. Consequently, there is no Being, whose existence is
demonstrable [necessary].”
● Whatever we conceive as existent we can also conceive as non-existent -> Can
conceive of the non-existence of God -> existence of God cannot be contradictory -> not
demonstrable that God exists.
● Logical possibility and possibility are not the same thing
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Teleological Arguments
Newton
● Did eyes come into existence from blind chance? How else would we have had eyes to
see so perfectly?
1. There are eyes, and they exhibit an intricate purposeful structure (eyes are for seeing).
2. This structure came about either by blind chance or by an intelligent designer.
3. It couldn’t have come about by blind chance.
4. Hence, there is an intelligent designer.
Cleanthes’ Argument for Design
● A priori - without experience
● A posteriori - with experience
● Machines are intricate structures, the world is an intricate structure - they must resemble
each other, just on a different scale
● By analogy we infer it is designed
● D2 is an argument from analogy - a lot of criticism
● Argument directly to a designer
Philo’s (Hume’s) objections in Dialogues 2, 5 & 8
The Objection in Dialogue 2
● We lack adequate experience of designers designing worlds
The Objection in Dialogue 5
● Even granting design, we can’t infer unity, goodness, or infinity
● You cannot infer infinity, goodness, or unity in the designer
The Objection in Dialogue 8
● Given infinite time atoms in random motion could and would conjoin in every possible
way (including the way they are today)
1. Design Arg. from analogy
● In order for an analogous argument to be effective, one has to know from
experience that there is strong relation between the two things you are
comparing.
2. Design Arg. without analogy (“direct”)
3. Inference to best explanation design arg.
● Logically, monotheism and polytheism are equally possible
Paley’s Design Argument
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Document Summary
Cosmological argument - start looking at the universe. 2: anything that changes is made to change by something distinct from it. 3: a series of changes cannot regress infinitely. 4: hence, there must be a first cause of change that itself cannot be changed. Conclusion: this unchangeable first cause people understand to be/call god. In the world efficient causes come in series . We cannot find that something is its own efficient cause . The series of efficient causes cannot possibly go back to infinity . We must therefore posit a first efficient cause . Some things can either exist or fail to exist . It is impossible that everything has being of this sort . There must be something in the world that exists of necessity . Either this necessity is or is not caused by something else . The series cannot possibly go back to infinity . Must therefore posit something that is necessary per se .
