Cosmological argument Flashcards
Key philosopher
Aquinas
Aquinas’ 3 ways
Unmoved mover
Uncaused causer
Necessity and contingency
Way 3
Necessity and contingency
Uses reductio ad absurdum
- Everything in the natural world is contingent
- If everything is contingent then at some time there was nothing
- Ex Nihilo nihil fit, out of nothing, nothing can come
- Something must exist necessarily
- Everything necessary must either be caused or uncaused
- But there cannot be infinite regress
- There must be some uncaused necessary being
- God
Key challenging philosopher
Russell
Russell’s brute fact argument
- The universe just is
- To ask for an explanation is to ask for something we cannot fully understand
- This deems the question and answer meaningless
- Aquinas commits the fallacy of composition
Fallacy of composition
Just because I have a mother, does not mean that the universe has a mother
Challenger of fallacy of composition
Reichenbach
Reichenbach’s challenge to fallacy
Not all such arguments are fallacious, the ‘brick and brick wall kind’
Alternative CA philosopher
Copleston or Liebniz
Copleston’s CA
- The chain of contingent beings must stop somewhere
- Everything must have a sufficient reason for its existence
- A sufficient reason is an explanation to which nothing further can be added
Liebniz’s CA
Principle of sufficient reason
- Everything must have a sufficient reason for its existence
- Otherwise it could have failed to be that way
- Any contingent being must have a sufficient explanation
- God
Criticising philosopher
Hume
Hume’s Criticisms
1) The rejection that anything can exist necessarily
- We can only say that something exists a posteriori, not a priori
2) The universe itself may be a necessarily existing being
Aquinas’ indirect defence
Matter may exist necessarily, but it is a caused necessary being meaning it must have been caused by God
Name another version of the CA
Kalam CA
