Zusammenfassung der Ressource
Cosmological Argument Summary
- Anselm's cosmological argument
- Ways 1 & 2: The arguments for an unmoved mover and uncaused causer
- Concerned with why there is any motion or causation
- Argues that there is a first mover which causes all that exists
- Argues that there is a first mover which causes all that exists
- God is the first efficient cause of the universe
- Infinite regression is rejected
- God is a pure act
- Copleston called this an 'ontologically ultimate cause'
- Way 3: The argument from contingency
- Aquinas argues that God necessarily exists
- Criticisms of Way 3:
- Kant rejected Aquinas' Third Way for the same
reason that he rejected the concept of necessary
existence with respect to the ontological
argument
- Mackie questioned the assumption that there is a necessary being & that God should be the necessary being
- David Hume
- Questioned idea that every effect has the same cause
- One can't always claim/ assume that every effect has a necessary cause
- The Fallacy of Composition
- Hume questioned whether its necessary for the whole universe
to have a cause just because everything that is within the
universe could be explained by reference to a preceding cause
- Bertrand Russell's example: the mother of the human race
- Russell- Copleston debate
- Copleston
- Presented reformulation of some of the ideas found in 3rd Way of Aquinas
- Argued the Universe can only be
sufficiently explained by reference to
God
- God is different from contingent
beings as he is 'his own sufficient
cause'
- Argued that explaining why there's a
universe is important
- Russell
- Rejected Copleston's arguments and suggested
that the universe was not explainable in the way
Copleston wanted
- Argued that whether an explanation for
the universe as a whole is possible or not,
the explanation is beyond the reach of
human beings
- It's unnecessary for human's have a
sufficient explanation of the universe that
goes beyond the contingent universe
- Stated: "I should say that the universe is just there and that is all"