2020-10-03
phil-1101
- St Thomas Aquinas
- Guiding questions for St Thomas Aquinas' argument
- Why does St Thomas Aquinas think it's impossible for something to cause itself?
- Why does he think there can't be a chain of causes going back to infinity?
- What does Anselm mean by the word God?
- Does the existence of God follow from the impossibility of both circular/self-causation and an infinite chain of causes?
- If not, what other premises need to be added to turn this into deductively valid inference?
- Guiding questions for William Paley's argument
- According to William Paley, what is it about a watch that seems to cry out for an explanation in terms of an intelligent designer?
- Note all of the sophisticated objections that William Paley anticipates and responds to
- In what respect is a living creature like a watch?
- Is this analogy strong enough to support the conclusion that the existence of God is the best explanation for the existence of living creature?
- What sort of definition of God does William Paley seem to be assuming?
- How does this compare with Anselm's definition?
- Using analogies to argue for a conclusion is a very common form of reasoning
- Causal chain
- Sequence of events, where each event is caused by the previous event
- Potentially infinite process
- Process that could be continued on and on without end
- Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz
- Every fact has an explanation
- God is a necessary being not a contingent being
- Contingent being --> could not have existed
- E.g. if your parents never met, there would be no you
- William Paley used an abductive argument to explain the design argument
- Argument by analogy
- Teleology --> goal based; function
- Not everything has an obvious purpose
- Flawed world implies a flawed creator
- Is infinite regress possible?