PHL101Y1 Chapter 1: The Cosmological Argument
The Cosmological Argument
Author: Richard Taylor (1919 - 2003), American Philosopher
The Principles of Sufficient Reason
The existence/non-existence of things brings up big questions
We have accustomed presence that we often take for granted a lot around us and don’t connect
it to reasoning or a creator.
Most people would not accept the explanation that things came from nothing at all
Non-existence doesn’t require an explanation. Existence does.
Principle of sufficient reason: there is some sufficient reason for something that makes it true.
There is some sort of explanation for everything
Contingent: depend on something else
Necessary: depend on their own nature
Untruths are also contingent or necessary
The principle of sufficient reason presupposes it.
The Existence of a World
It does not seem necessary that anything in the world should ever exist
From the principle of sufficient reason there must be an explanation for our world and
everything in it
This does not imply that there is a purpose for everything (but a reason)
One can say the world is a pure accident or completely necessary but it strange to deny the
need for any sufficient reason while presupposing that there is a reason for every other things that
ever exists
Not a question of why something is there but why it is at all
If a tiny marble became our entire world this would not unjustify the need for an explanation for
its existence
The necessity of such a reason is not eliminated by the supposition that other things do not exist
Beginingless Existence
How long something existence does not explain why a thing exists
Even if it never came into existence (existed forever) this wouldn’t explain why it exists
Why should there have been something rather than nothing
Creation
Creation means dependence
Light derives its existence from flame, in the way that if the flame was not there the light could
not be either
The world depends on its existence for god (could not exist independently of god)
If god eternal, this could also mean that the world is eternal, but the fact that god is eternal
does not mean the world has to be eternal as well
God
God is the creator of heaven and earth
There must be a reason for the existence of heaven and hell
This reason must be found inside the world or in supernatural outside the world
But there is no proof that anything about the world suggest it can exist by its own nature
Anything that exists by its own nature is necessarily be eternal and indestructible
Ex. The suns heat and light could have existed forever and will never cease but are not
dependent on their own nature
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