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Philosophy > Argument Based on Reason > Flashcards

Argument Based on Reason Flashcards

1
Q

What does teleological argument mean?

A

It is the name for a number of arguments which attempt to prove His existence through the reasonableness of his existence. They look at observable things on micro-cosmic and macro-cosmic levels.

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2
Q

What is Plato’s teleological argument?

A

In his book the republic, he argues that a being of supreme intelligence called the demiurge created the universe. It did not have the ex nihlo power but used the existing materials to create a beautiful and orderly world.

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3
Q

What book did Aristotle write of the prime mover in?

A

Metaphysics.

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4
Q

What book did St Thomas Aquinas refer to when explaining how God made the universe?

A

Metaphysics.

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5
Q

What did Cicero come up with?

A

His own teleological argument. He said that a creator must exist due to the divine reason found throughout the universe

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6
Q

What quote can be used from St Paul to support the teleological argument?

A

“For since the creation of the world, Gods invisible powers - his eternal power and divine nature - have been clearly seen, being understood from what is made, so that people are without excuse.”

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7
Q

What did St Augustine say that can be used to support teleological arguments?

A

He said that the worlds well ordered changes and movements together with the beautiful appearance of all things provides strong evidence that God exists.

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8
Q

What does design qua purpose mean?

A

Aquinas term for saying the way the parts of the universe fit together for a purpose.

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9
Q

What does design qua regularity mean?

A

Aquinas term for the way that order and regularity in the world are proof of a designer.

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10
Q

What is Aquinas argument generally called?

A

The fifth way.

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11
Q

What type of argument is a teleological argument?

A

A posteriori

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12
Q

What is the fifth way argument?

A

The idea that it is observable to see that there is a creator and that everything has a telos. For example, you would be able to presume that an arrow is created and fired by some being of intelligence and knowledge with a purpose. Things like cells work towards their telos without being aware that they are doing so, proving that they are being guided by something.

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13
Q

What analogy did Paley come up with?

A

The watch analogy.

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14
Q

What type of theology is Paley’s theology?

A

Natural and revealed theology.

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15
Q

What natural evidence did Paley use to illustrate his argument?

A

He looked at the different parts of the eyes and how they all work together in order to allow someone to see to prove that they were all designed for a particular purpose and therefore must have a designer behind it.

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16
Q

Why does Paley say that it does not matter that we have not observed God?

A

Just because you have not seen a watchmaker before does not mean that you would presume that there wasn’t one.

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17
Q

What is Aquinas theology referred as too?

A

Thomism

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18
Q

Why does Paley say that flaws in nature don’t disprove his argument?

A

If you found a broken watch you would still presume it was created. Like wise, there may also be superfluous parts.

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19
Q

What does anthropomorphism mean?

A

Giving God human characteristics in order to understand Him.

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20
Q

How did Paley rebut the idea that the watch just came about through chance?

A

The parts are too complicated and intricate for that to be possible.

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21
Q

How does Paley predict a response to evolutionary theory?

A

He says that no matter how far the chain of reproducing watches went we would still presume that they were designed. Hence, it does not matter that plant and animal species reproduce, they are still in need of a designer.

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22
Q

When was Hume’s critism of teleological arguments published?

A

23 years before Paley’s was.

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23
Q

Why does Hume say that even if the design argument works it doesn’t prove the existence of God?

A

All it would prove would be a designer, not the existence of the God of classical theism. For example, there could be multiple designers.

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24
Q

How does Hume critise the idea that we know a something is designed?

A

We know that a watch has been designed because we are familiar with the process of watch making, however we have never seen a universe designed so it is illogical to presume that it was designed.

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25
Q

What does Hume point to be logically wrong with a teleological analogy?

A

If a watch was designed because everything needs a purpose then the mind who created it would also need a purpose which would result in a infinite regression.

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26
Q

Why does Hume believe that teleological arguments lead us to anthropomorphize God?

A

When you compare a watch to a universe they are incomparable, therefore doing this may lead you to make the same mistake with a designer and God, God is transcendent so shouldn’t be compared to a human.

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27
Q

What does Hume critise a designer God for?

A

If God designed the world, why would he design disease and natural disasters too.

28
Q

What did Kant believe about apparent design?

A

He believes that in our real life, we are just presented with raw sense data and it is our mind which attempts to make sense of it. However, we cannot trust our perception of order to mean that the world is actually ordered as it is just a creation of our mind.

29
Q

What does John Stuart Mill say in relation to Humes problem of evil critism of the teleological arguments?

A

He discussed the problem of natural evils being a major against the existence of an omnibenevolent and omnipotent God. Looking at the natural world, things like hurricanes, he believes that if it has been designed then it has not been done well. He says that if humans do bad things to humans they should be punished, we should take the same attitude towards God.

30
Q

Who came up with the theory of evolution?

A

Charles Darwin, his theory explains why the world appeared to be designed without the need for God.

31
Q

What does Dawkins argue about the teleological argument?

A

He argues that the complexity of nature needs to be explained, but this explanation can be found in the “blind” process of evolution. There is no God but a blind automatic process where the winner looks as if they were designed.

32
Q

What’s the anthropic principle?

A

The idea that the world is fine tuned so that humans can live in it based on Tennants 6 ideas. 1. Nature and knowledge are mutually adaptable to each other. 2. The fact that evolution happens shows the existence of God. 3. The fitness of the physical world and its ability to sustain life point towards the existence of God. 4. The world being essentially beautiful. 5. Humans being rational and moral creatures above other animals. 6. All of his points together reinforce each other.

33
Q

What is Tennants theistic hypothesis?

A

The reality of God could be established by philosophical reasoning and from nature. It is impossible to have definitive proof of Gods existence, so we should base our conclusions on what is most statistically possible not conclusive

33
Q

How has Tennant’s anthropic principle been developed?

A

Two forms came into being, the weak and the strong. The weak argued that if the world had been different human beings could not and would not exist. The strong suggests that the world must be the way it is so human beings can exist in it, the way the world developed made human existence inevitable.

33
Q

Why could the existence of multiple universes disprove Tennants theory?

A

If there are actually an infinite number of universes it only makes sense that at least one accidentally developed in the way that ours did.

34
Q

Why can Tennants reliance on humans be crtised?

A

If the universe had been designed slightly differently, any other animal could take center place, Tennant putting humans at the center makes no logical sense.

35
Q

Why can Tennants reliance on probability be crtisied?

A

The probability of the universe being designed is just as unprobable of any action happening.

36
Q

What is Ockham’s Razor?

A

The idea that the explanation with the fewer assumptions is the correct one.

37
Q

What did Swinburne argue?

A

The laws of the universe act to very simple principles, they are regular and observable and can be understood by using scientific methods. It would be unbelievable that all this came about by coincidence, so using Ockham’s razor he argues that it is obvious that God must exist and the obvious result of any scientific studies.

38
Q

How does Michael Palmer critsise Swinburne?

A

Theism isn’t actually a simple answer for example humans cant even agree on Gods characteristics.

39
Q

Why would both Hume and Mill critisise Swinburne?

A

He does not answer the problem evil, the existence of evil in the world would not be perceived to be the most simple answer for both religious and non religious believers.

40
Q

What’s a cosmological argument?

A

A type of argument that looks to the world to prove Gods existence.

41
Q

How did Aquinas discover the cosmological argument?

A

He studied the translations of Islamic authors who had already created the argument.

42
Q

What is the principle of sufficient reason?

A

Based on the premise that there must be an explanation RATHER THEN A CAUSE FOR THE EXISTENCE of the universe and everything in it.

43
Q

What are Aquinas Five ways?

A

His arguments for the existence of God which he published in his book the summa theologica. The first three are cosmological arguments.

44
Q

What is Aquinas first way?

A

There must be a prime mover - God - as everything depends on something to be moved. Its when something goes from a state of potentiality to actuality.

45
Q

How does Anthony Kenny critise Aquinas first way?

A

He claims that it contradicts newtons first law of motion. He also says that something only needs itself to become something, “ a kingmaker need not himself be king, and it is not dead men who commit murder.”

46
Q

Why can it be said that Aquinas first way argument is outdated?

A

Its based on Aristotelian thought, things such as the belief in actuality are no longer needed now there are scientific explanations.

47
Q

What is Aquinas second way?

A

The series of efficient causes implies that there must be an uncaused cause as infinite regression is impossible.

48
Q

What analogy can be used to explain Aquinas second way?

A

Aquinas used the description of a marble statue, the descriptions show how things can move from potentiality to actuality. Material Cause: The marble from which the statue is made, it contains the inherent potential to be made into a statue. Formal Cause: The sculptor studies and recognizes how best to make the marble into the statue, showing how it moves from the material to the efficient cause. Efficient Cause: The sculpture chisels the block of marble into the sculpture. Final Cause: All can recognize the marble as a statue.

49
Q

What is a positive of Aquinas second way?

A

Its accessible, everyone can experience it and therefore is reliable.

50
Q

What if disproven would completely damage Aquinas way?

A

Everything needs a cause. Leibniz principle of sufficient reason can support this.

51
Q

Why do the first and second ways not prove the existence of a current God?

A

Just because he started everything does not mean that he couldn’t be dead.

52
Q

What is an ontology?

A

The study of the nature- the property’s of something.

53
Q

What does cause in fieri mean?

A

A cause that causes something to become what it is.

54
Q

What does cause in esse mean?

A

A cause that sustains the existence or being of an effect.

55
Q

What is Aquinas third way?

A

He observes that some things begin to exist and then cease to exist, this leads us to conclude that things are both capable of existing and not existing, they are possible beings. If things are capable not existing then at some point nothing must have existed , which means that at something must exist that is incapable of not existing - a necessary not possible being.

56
Q

Why does Aquinas third way not make sense?

A

There is no reason to say that everything not existing all happened at the same point.

57
Q

What did Leibniz come up with?

A

The principle for sufficient reason, there must be an explanation for everything in the universe- God. Nothing in the world is capable of coming up with this explanation itself which is why it must come from God.

58
Q

What analogy did Leibniz come up with to prove the principle for sufficient reason?

A

The geometry book. If you have a geometry book which is the final result of many copied geometry books you can not explain the geometry book by saying it was a copy, instead you’d need to look to the existence of the original writer of the geometry book.

59
Q

How did James Macke critique the principle for sufficient reason?

A

The need to find an explanation for the world is not actually a logical necessity. We feel obliged to find an explanation for the world to reassure ourselves that it is not pointless. Therefore it is not really an a posteriori argument.

60
Q

Who can be used to support James Macke?

A

Bertrand Russel. He asserted that the universe is nothing but brute fact.

61
Q

Why is the logic of the sufficient reason not consistently applied?

A

If there needs to be a explanation for everything then why does the explanation need to be God, it could be instead be that the universe is just brute fact.

62
Q

What does quantifier shift fallacy mean?

A

The mistaken assumption that just because everything (plural,) had a cause that there is a cause for every thing (singular.) This is a problem of the cosmological argument.

63
Q

How does the cosmological argument commit the fallacy of composition?

A

It presumes that a whole must share the same properties as its parts. Bertrand Russel described this saying that just because every human has a mother, humanity doesn’t have a mother.

64
Q

What did Stephen Hawking’s argue about the universe?

A

He speculated that the universe is a four dimensional finite entity, somewhat like a sphere, which has no beginning or end. It offers the possibility that if the universe is self contained with no beginning or end there would be no need for a creator.

Philosophy (10 decks)

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