Theme 1A: Inductive arguments - cosmological Flashcards
What does the cosmological argument attempt to prove?
That God is the cause of the universe
What type of argument is the cosmological argument?
Inductive
Posteriori
What does inductive argument mean?
Probability not proof, even if the premises are true the conclusion can still be false
what does posteriori mean?
Based on experience not logic
What is the cosmological argument based on?
It is based on our experience that everything has a cause - posteriori
What does the cosmological argument presume?
That the universe must have a first cause - priori
Why is the cause of the universe a external cause?
As it must be located outside of the universe
What are the key facts about the external cause in the cosmological argument?
- Not itself cause
- Doesn’t need an explanation
- The external cause is God
- God’s existence is necessary
Who came up with the 5 ways of the cosmological argument?
Thomas Aquinas
What is the name of the book that Aquinas wrote the cosmological argument in?
Summa Theologica
What is Aquinas first way referred to as?
‘Motion and change’
What is the first way?
- Everything in the world is in a state of change or motion
- When we look down the changes we would have to come to something that started the sequence off
- At the start of the sequence there must be an unmoved mover
- Aquinas called this God
Who was Aquinas influenced by for the first way?
- Aristotle’s idea of a prime mover
- He used Aristotle’s examples and explanations
What was Aristotle’s idea of a prime mover (first way)?
- Aristotle uses things moving from a state of potentiality to a state of an actuality
- There must be an efficient cause that moves potentiality to actuality
What did Aquinas believe about infinite regress?
- He rejected it
- He believed we would not find the first cause of things by simply going further and further back in time
- He said there must be a beginning point
What is infinite regress?
Finding the first cause of things by simply going further and further back in time
What was Aristotle’s analogy that can be used to illustrate the first way?
- The example of a block of marble
- The block has the potentiality to become a statue (actuality) but only when acted on by the sculptor (efficient cause)
- The universe is the same
What was Aquinas analogy that can be used to illustrate the first way?
- The example of wood
- Wood has the potential to become hot but it needs actual heat to do so
- An efficient cause (fire) must cause the wood to become hot.
- The universe is the same
What concept does the second way deal with?
Cause and effect
According to Aquinas, what is controlled by the law of cause and effect?
Everything observable in nature
What is the second way based on?
efficient causality
How do we see efficient causality in the world around us?
As there is an order of efficient causes and it is impossible that something is its own efficient cause
What can the order of efficient causes not do (second way)?
Cannot proceed to infinity
What is the second way?
- Everything has a cause as nothing can cause itself
- There can’t be an infinite number of causes as with an infinite chain there can be no first cause
- Therefore there must be a first cause on which all other things depend on
- Aquinas called this God
Why does Aquinas reject the idea of an infinite series of cause and effect?
As if it was infinite, what would have caused all the cause and effect now
What are the key terms in the second way?
Efficient cause: What causes all other causes
Intermediate cause: The thing that causes the efficient cause
- Ultimate cause: The thing that is caused by the intermediate cause
What concept does Aquinas’s third way deal with?
Contingency and necessity
What did Aquinas’s state about the world in the third way?
That everything in the world is dependent on something else - contingent
What is the third way?
- Everything in the world is contingent
- If everything is dependant on something else nothing would exist
- So there must be a necessary being
- This necessary being must not be dependant on anything else and brought everything else into existence
- Aquinas’s stated this was God
Who created an analogy for the third way?
Copleston
What was Copleston analogy for the third way?
- Using the relationship between a parent and a child
- Without the existence of a parent, the child cannot come into existence
- The child is contingent on the parent for its existence
- Its the same way as God
Why is the Kalam argument cosmological?
It seeks to prove that God was the temporal (relating to time) first cause of the universe
What is Kalam arabic for?
‘Argue’ or ‘Discuss’
Who first developed the Kalam argument?
Al Kinda and Al Ghazali - An Islamic group of thinkers influenced by Aristotle
When was the Kalam argument first developed?
850 CE
Who later developed a modern version of the Kalam argument?
William lane Craig
What century did William lane Craig create a modern version of the Kalam argument?
20th Century
What view is the Kalam argument based on?
The view that infinity cannot exist in actuality so the universe must of had a beginning
What is the Kalam argument?
- Whatever comes into being must have a cause
- The universe came into being
- Therefore the universe must have a cause of its existence
- Since no scientific evidence can provide a causal account of the origins of the universe, the cause must be personal
- This personal agent can be seen as God
What are the two arguments in the Kalam argument?
- Actual infinite can’t exist
- Actual infinite can’t be formed
What is the Actual infinite can’t exist argument in the Kalam argument?
- If you had an infinite number of red and black balls, you would have an infinite number of black and red balls
- In reality this is not possible
- It is the same with the universe
- Could also use the library example
What is the actual infinite can’t be formed argument in the Kalam argument?
- Successive addition
- You can always add more to a number
- Dates, times and numerical sequences are evidence against actual infiite due to this
- Therefore it is illogical to think of actual infinity
- If something does not contain its own reason for existing, then it must have been caused by something else. Only when we arrive at a self causing, necessary being can we say we have reached the end of the chain of cause and effect
