Teleological arguments Flashcards
What does teleological mean?
Teleological means the study of final purpose. It focuses on the purpose of god, or the purpose god has given us. The arguments are inductive, they make observations about the world.
What is Hume’s design argument from analogy?
In ‘the fitting of means to ends’, nature resembles the product of human design. Similar effects have similiar causes. The cause of the products of human design is an intellegent mind that intended the design. Therefore, the cause of nature must be an intelligent mind that intended the design. Nature suggests a designer with larger faculties than humans posses. Therefore, god exists
Issues including:
Hume’s objection to the design argument from analnogy
He refers to the fallacy of composition. It is a fallacy to assume that a part is always relevant or similar to a whole. He doesnt think that machines and the universe are that similar, animals would be a better example as they’re formed by natural means. Is a designer the best explination? God. vs evolution. Argued from a unique case.
What is Paley’s design argument from spatial order/purpose?
Anything that has parts organised to serve a purpose is designed. Nature contains things which have parts that are organised to serve a purpose. Therefore, nature contains things that are designed. Design can only be explained in terms of a designer. A designer must have a mind and be distinct from the design. Therefore, nature was designed by a mind that is distinct from nature. Therefore, such a mind (God) exists.
Issues including:
Problems with spatial order
(as proposed by Hume and Palye)
Some examples of spatial disorder would be that large areas of the universe are empty, appearing to have no purpose/order at all. Another is that some pats of the universe seem faulty, like natural disasters. This suggests that the designer lacks the power, intellegence or love to create a world with less disorder. So if there even is a creater, maybe it isnt all-powerful or all-loving. Palye argues that even though a watch is faulty, doesnt mean that it isnt designed. There could be reasons beyond our understanding as to why the universe has its faults.
Swineburne’s argument from temporal order/regularity.
The universe as a whole contains temporal order. There are two possinle hypothesis’: (HI) Temporal oder has a scientific explination; or (H2) Temporal order has a personal explination. H1 fails because science can only explain the existence of regularities of succession in terms of more fundamental regularities of succesion. H2 can explain fundamental rregularities of succesion, they are similar to those produced by human agents so by analogy are produced by rational agency. The agency in question would have to be extremley powerful, so god. therefore, god exists.
Issue:
The design argument fails as it is argued from a unique case.
Hume does not think we observe causation, instead we observe certain events that are connected, and from that we can infer causation. This relies on probability, so it is impossible to make causal inference about the origins of the universe as we have only experienced one universe, and have never experienced the origins of any universe. Swineburn responds by saying that science makes inferences about the universe, such as the big bang, which is also a unique case.
Issue:
Whether god is the best or only explination.
Even if we accept that there is a deigner, an extra step needs to be taken to conclude that the designer is god. Hume questions the validity of this step: If the universe reflects its designer, then as the universe is not infinite how can the designer be an infinite god? The universe is not perfect (spacial disoder), so how can the designer be a perfect god? The universe could have been created by a group of people, or the designer could be human-like and have a body. Swineburne accepts that the qualities of god need to be established by other aguments but he uses Occams razor to reject the possibility that a group could be responsible for the creation of the univese. The designer cant have a body either as the designer must be distinct from the design so cannot inhabit a body like us.
