Philosophy - Concepts Flashcards
Problem of Evil - What goes under the logical problem?
- Inconsistent trait (J.L mackie)
- Epicurus
- Cruelty in nature (J.S.M)
- (Doetovsoky) brothers kalamazov
What is the logical problem of evil
The idea that the concept of evil would not be permitted by an all-loving, all-powerful and supreme good God.
Moral evil:
Torture, theft, poverty, pollution - the problems coming from humans and not nature
The logical problem of evil poses the greatest challenge to religion
- Logical evil - J.L Mackie and the inconsistent Triad, God would not let evil exist, yet it does - so he cannot be the 4 omni qualities.
- Logical problem poses a great challenge as it is coherent and universal.
- Suggests very powerfully that God either lacks love or power - and he is more like the prime mover than the traditional understanding.
The evidential problem of evil poses the greatest challenge to monotheism.
Dostoevsky, brothers Karamazov - the story of the boy in the field / turkish warcrimes. God would not look on and refuse to act.
- Life is cruel for most people, and suffering challenges the creation of life by God
- John Stuart Mill - God can exist, but he cannot be all-powerful - he is limited but loving.
- Immanuel Kant argues that is is possible that God exists despite it appearing illogical, if he gives out just reward and punishment post mortem.
- Logical problem only exists if you use the evidential, therefore cannot be more challenging.
Teleological - Aquinas’ Fifth way
Archer and the arrow. An arrow cannot motion itself so must have been fired. Things move from potential to actuality, and thus the universe must have been caused.
Teleological - Humes’ Critiques
- Possible council of inferior Gods
- Possible infant God
- The strength of the analogy is related to the proximity of the analagous
- Any being claimed to exist may or may not exist. Just because the universe may have come from somewhere, doesn’t mean we can say what created it.
- Origin of the universe surpasses cause and effect - supersedes human understanding.
Teleological - Natural Religion
Natural religion refers to the natural world.
Teleological - The challenge of chance
- Possibility that life came from evolution
- Chaos theory, where patterns occur from random chaos if given long enough.
Teleological - Paley’s Watch Analogy
- The world operates like a machine with finely tuned gears that work too intricately to be coincidence.
- Hume counter of biology does not relate to mechanisms therefore cannot compare universe to world.
- Complexity cannot arise from simplicity due to the entropy of the universe.
Teleological - Weaknesses of Teleological
Darwins Evolution Hume + baby god Cruelty of Nature Problem of Evil Inconsistent triad (J.L Mackie)
Teleological - Strengths
Ockhams Razor
Watch analogy
Fifth way - inanimate objects propogate to object
Irreducible complexity
Biblical Support (Job)
Anthropic Principle (laws of universe are too finely tuned / just correct)
Goldilocks Enigma -> correct conditions
Entropy -> science proves that things go from high order to low order. Cannot go backwards.
Plato - World of Forms
A metaphysical world that our souls originated from, and can only be returned to through proper philosophy. Contains perfect “ideas” that we all insinctually recognise in objects.
Plato - Analogy of the Cave
Plato - Strengths
Plato - Weaknesses
Aristotle - 4 causes
Aristotle - Demiurge
Aristotle - Prime Mover
Aristotle - Strengths
Aristotle - Weaknesses
Teleological:
Argument from purpose. Aquinas’ Fifth way
Cosmological:
Argument from design. Paley’s watch.
Hume successfully dismantles the teleological argument. (Strengths)
- Epicurean hypothesis - events necessary to create the universe could happen by chance (infinite opportunities)
- possible multiple gods or infant deities
- contradictory design (desert / polar regions)
- could be trial and error creation (imperfections of disease / tsunamis)
- we have no experience of world-making. Cannot tell if it was designed or not.
- problem of evil could eradicate teleological.
Hume Unsuccessfully dismantles the teleological argument
- Humes comparison of world to food than watch is over-simplified
- Arthur Brown / F.R Tenant - anthropic principle
- Similar properties across the world (gravity)
- Qualities of judeo-christian God align with creator God.
- plenty evidence to suggest existence of God
- Scientific explanations do not rule out God working through natural methods. (Keith Ward)
Epicurean Hypothesis
- Whatever happened prior to the universe, if infinite could bring the conditions to create the current universe, simply by chance.
Anthropic Principle:
- If the conditions of the world / physics were marginally different, then life would not be able to exist (example: gravity imploding / exploding planets.)
The teleological argument is nothing more than a logical fallacy: Yes
- A priori reasoning cannot be trusted
- Noumenal is unknowable, Aquinas and Paley are prescribing qualities onto God which is an error.
- Hume demonstrates that even if the teleological has merit, there are a multitude of answers
- ## Hume is correct in stating that the comparisons drawn by Aquinas and Paley are poor ones.
The teleological argument is nothing more than a logical fallacy: no
- Anthropic Principle and Goldilocks enigma demonstrate that the probability is increasingly low that life developed as it did
- Entropy and irreducable complexity would seem to completely contradict science’s basic tendencies.
- Mathematical probabilities for identical early mutations are too low to be realistic.
- Gaps in evolution demonstrate that there must be a designer or a long-term goal. We enjoy literature and art that have no survival basis.
- Judeo-Christian God can be reasoned with the existence of meritable arguments, even if not 100% confirmable.
Cosmological argument - Aquinas’ third way
Cosmological argument - Leibinies’ principle of sufficient reason
Cosmological argument - Coppleston
Cosmological Argument - Strengths
- Principle of sufficient reason, there needs to be a good cause for the universe (Leibiniz)
- Nothing cannot arise from nothing - there is no case of ex nihilo inside of the universe. Something must have caused the universe.
- There is a tendency for objects to propogate between potential and actuality.
- Premise supported by empirical evidence and Aristotle. Based on observation.
- Leibiniz - we always want a sufficient reason for the universes’ existence.
Cosmological Argument - Weaknesses
- Nelson, if a series were literally infinite then there would be no reason for a first cause
- Post hoc post proc fallacy, where just because something is, that it was caused by something preceeding
- Inanimate or animate objects that travel towards potentiality do so as the result of scientific systems (e.g gravity for water) they are not sentient.
- Hume still applies here. Could be baby god or whatnot. We’re prescribing not describing.
- Strange for a necessary being to create contingent beings.
Cosmological Argument - Aquinas’ second way
Cosmological argument - Aquinas’ first way
Problem of Evil - Moral Argument
Kant believes it’s possible for evil to be reconciled with God if he acts as judge after death.
