Cosmological Flashcards
Aquinas’ 1st Way (Motion)
P1 The universe contains motion (change from potentially X to actually X)
P2 Nothing can move/change itself (actualise its own potential); it must be moved/changed by something distinct from it.
P3 If there were an infinite series of such secondary movers/changers, then there would be no first mover/changer.
P4 If there were no first mover/changer, then there could not be any motion/change (if cause is removed, so to will the effect).
P5 Reductio ad absurdum. There are things in motion.
C1 Therefore, given P1, there must be a first mover/changer.
C2 This first mover/changer is God (pure actuality).
Aquinas’ 2nd Way (Atemporal Causation)
P1 Everything in the universe is subject to cause and effect (efficient causes).
P2 Nothing can be the cause of itself.
P3 If this chain of causation was infinite, there would be no first cause amongst efficient causes.
P4 If there was no first cause, there would be no subsequent causes or effects.
P5 Reduction ad absurdum: there are subsequent causes and effects in the world.
C Therefore, there must have been a first cause, a the source of all efficient causes (God).
Aquinas’ 3rd Way (Contingency)
P1 Contingent beings exist in the universe.
P2 If everything were contingent there would be a time when nothing existed.
P3 If this were so, there would be nothing now as nothing comes from nothing.
P4 Since contingent things do exist now (P1), there must be something that exists necessarily.
C1 Therefore there must be something that exists necessarily.
P5 Every necessary thing either has its necessity caused by another or not.
P6 An infinite regression of causes is impossible.
C2 There must be a necessary being (a being that has, of itself, its own necessity) – God.
Al Ghazali’s Kalām Argument (Temporal Causation)
P1 Whatever begins to exist has a cause.
P2 The universe began to exist.
C Therefore, the universe has a cause.
Descartes’ Trademark Argument
P1 I have the concept GOD.
P2 GOD is a concept of something infinite and perfect.
P3 As a mind (a thinking substance), I can create many ideas, including ideas of people and physical objects.
P4 But, I am finite, while the concept GOD is of something infinite.
C1 Therefore, the concept GOD is something with more reality than my own mind.
P5 Concept GOD’s cause must have at least as much reality as what the concept is of (effect).
C2 Therefore, my mind could not create it.
P6 The only possible cause is God.
C3 Therefore, God exists.
Descartes’ Cosmological Argument
P1 The existence of the idea God in my mind needs explaining; the continuing existence of me as a conscious being also needs explaining.
P2 I cannot be the cause of my idea of God (a perfect being) because I am not God. I cannot bring about my continuous existence as a conscious being because I do not have the power.
C1 Therefore, the cause of me as a conscious being and the cause of my idea of God must lie outside of myself.
P3 Either (a) this external cause is itself caused by something else, or (b) it is its own cause.
P4 If (a) is true, then either its cause (c) must be caused by a further thing or (b) it is its own cause.
P5 This sequence of causes cannot rum back to infinity, and eventually will reach an ultimate cause – (b).
P6 The ultimate cause is God.
C2 Therefore, it is God who ultimately causes my idea of God, and it is God who ultimately sustains my existence as a conscious being.
C3 Because I do have an idea of God and am sustained as a conscious being, God must exist as the cause of both these things.
Leibniz’s Argument from Sufficient Reason (Contingency)
P1 No fact can ever be true or existent unless there is a sufficient reason why things are as they are and not otherwise (principle of sufficient reason).
P2 Contingent facts exist (hidden premise).
P3 Contingent facts can only be partially explained in terms of contingent facts.
C1 The whole series of contingent facts cannot be sufficiently explained by any contingent fact within that series (from P1-P3)
C2 The sufficient reason for all contingent facts and for the series of facts must lie outside of the series of contingent facts.
C3 From C2, The ultimate reason for facts must appeal to a necessary substance (God).
W. L. Craig’s Kalām Argument (Temporal Causation)
P1 An actual infinite cannot exist in reality.
P2 Therefore, an infinite number of events cannot have occurred before the present.
P3 Therefore, the universe began to exist.
P4 Whatever begins to exist has a cause.
C1 Therefore, the universe has a cause.
C2 Moreover, this cause must be a personal cause (God), as scientific explanations cannot provide a causal account.
Issue: (Mackie) 1st Cause is NOT necessary
Possibility of infinite regress, infinite hooks hanging on each other
–> We have a present moment here. If infinity, then past will be infinite. But, time appears to get older, contradicting infinity.
–> A required explanation is indefinitely deferred.
Issue: (Hume) Objection to Causation
‘Constant conjunction’ > everything has a cause, falling out of Hume’s fork.
Plus, Universe is a unique case.
–> Overly skeptical. Losing sense of philosophy, which is to gain deeper connection to truth.
Issue: (Russell) Fallacy of Composition
Parts =/ Whole. Just because everything in the universe is contingent, does not mean the universe itself is contingent.
Could be itself a necessary thing.
–> Depends on what property looking at (brick, orchestra on stage, universe’s contingency following its parts).
Issue: Granted; Creator =/ Biblical God
Shows creator, but not his nature.
–> Doesn’t work for Descartes because he specifically reasons that the first cause is God and He is omniscient/omnipotent.
–> Combine w Teleological and Ontological.
Contingent vs Necessary
Contingent = Possible that it could not exist.
Necessary = Impossible that it could not exist.
What is the principle of sufficient reason?
Every fact/event in this world is susceptible to a full explanation (even if we do not know it).
Issue: (Russell) ‘Brute fact’
‘The universe is just there, and that’s all’.
–> May or may not be. Science is inconclusive here. Quantum mechanics may show energy as neither created nor destroyed (necessary). But, Big Bang shows our universe as 14 billion years; NOT always around as a ‘brute fact’.
