The Cosmological Argument Flashcards
Cosmological argument
Arguments for the existence of God based on God’s alleged ability to create the universe
Generally refers to God as the ‘first cause’
Prime mover
In Aristotle - that which creates movement as a final purpose by attraction
In Aquinas, the divine initiator of all change and motion
Aristotle’s 4 causes
Material
Efficient
Formal
Final
Aristotle quote on the thing that started it
‘An uncaused cause’
‘The prime mover’
Material
Actual physical properties/make up of a thing
Formal cause
The structure of design
The blueprint/a plan
Efficient cause
The actual force that brings something into being
Final cause
The ultimate purpose for being
Necessary
Something which cannot not exist
Contingent
Is reliant or dependent on something else
What did Aquinas say about contingent beings
All beings in this world are created and perish so they are all contingent
The 8 steps to Aquinas’ 3rd Way
We observe that things exist
Things that exist exist contingently
If all things that exist may not exist then at some point nothing existed
If nothing existed then nothing would exist now
It is false to say that nothing exists now
It is therefore false to say that the only things that exist exist contingently
There is therefore a necessary being
This is God
Fallacy of composition
The error of inferring that something must be true for the whole just because it is true for a part
Russell argument about contingency and necessity
Everything in the universe is contingent
The universe as a whole is necessary
Brute fact
A fact that has no explanation
Infinite regress
A chain of cause and effect that has no start
Metaphysical necessity
A form of necessity that derives from the nature of essence of things
God has metaphysical necessity
Occam’s razor
If there us more than one reason or hypothesis then the simplest one is the best
Quark
A particle assumed to be one of the building blocks of Quantum Physics
Russell quote on fallacy
‘I can illustrate what seem to me your fallacy’
Russell quote on Aquinas
‘He possesses little of the true philosophical spirit’
‘Before he begins to philosophise already he knows the truth’
