· The Cosmological argument is ‘a posteriori’ – it is reliant upon and fits with our experience of the world around us, with our own experience of causal chains provoking questions over how we, and the universe as a whole, came to be. The aim of the Cosmological argument is to attempt to prove God’s existence by showing that an infinite regress of causal chains is logically impossible, and The cosmological argument is an argument which states the universe is not explicable without reference to causes and factors outside itself. The cosmological argument is not just a Christian attempt to prove the existence of the classical theistic deity · In the Kalam cosmological argument, it is believed that the universe has a beginning in time. This gives its distinction with God. According to this form, everything that has a beginning in time like the universe always has a cause for existence. Thus since the universe has a beginning in time, it also has a cause for its existence, which is blogger.comted Reading Time: 3 mins
Essay Plan: Cosmological Argument - Philosophical Investigations
There are several versions of the argument, the classic being that of St. Cosmological argument essay Aquinas. Other significant figures include Leibniz and Kant. The Medieval philosopher, St, cosmological argument essay. Thomas Aquinas, cosmological argument essay, provided five arguments in his book, the Summa Theologica, the first three of which are cosmological: the argument from motion, the argument from causation and the argument from necessity and contingency.
In his Second Way, cosmological argument essay, the argument from causation, Aquinas argues that nothing causes itself, cosmological argument essay, so if the universe was to exist — which it does - there must be a first cause. P1 There is an order of efficient causes every event has a cause P2 Nothing can be the cause of itself P3 Imagine this order of causes goes back infinitely — then there would be no First Cause P4 If 3 were true, cosmological argument essay, then there would be no subsequent causes, but this is false.
C There must be a First Cause the source of all causes and this we call God Aquinas argues that nothing can cause itself because if something were the cause of itself it would have to be prior to itself, which is impossible. Therefore, if the universe was to exist at all there needs to be a first cause which began a chain of cause and effect. This argument is reductio ad absurdum. Aquinas attempts to argue that God must exist because an absurd result would follow from the denial of his existence; he uses premises three and four to demonstrate the impossibility of there being no first cause, by demonstrating that cosmological argument essay there was no first cause then the present state would not exist — something which is obviously false.
In support of premises 3 and 4 of the argument from causation, Immanuel Kant also argues that an infinite chain of causes is something that, by definition, could never be completed; if cosmological argument essay causes that lead up to the existence of us and the world really stretched off in to an infinite past, then there would have to be an infinity of causes occurring before the world could come to be.
Kant argues that this is impossible, as if there were an infinite number of causes prior to the present state, then the present state could never come to be. Since the present state has come to be, cosmological argument essay, there cannot be an infinity of causes and in turn there must be a first cause, which people call Cosmological argument essay. However, philosopher Gottfried Leibniz views the internal regress of the universe differently, with his principle of Sufficient Reason suggesting that since there does not appear to be anything within the universe itself to say why it exists, one can conclude that there is sufficient reason to believe in a great cause outside the universe.
In this way, Leibniz argues that the uncaused causer must exist outside the series of causes, infinite though this series may be; he argues, in turn, that such causer must be in esse, cosmological argument essay. This is different from the arguments from motion and causation in that it is based upon the contingency of the universe and of everything in it. P1 Everything in the universe is contingent on something else.
P2 Being contingent means that something need not exist P3 If everything need not exist, at some time they did not exist P4 If at one time nothing existed, nothing would exist today P5 Things exist today C Therefore, cosmological argument essay, there must be a non-contingent or necessary being to explain this God Here, Aquinas argues that since the universe is contingent, it cannot be the cause of its own existence and is not necessary.
Therefore, cosmological argument essay, a necessary being is required to bring the universe in to existence — where all things are contingent and in turn unnecessary, God is by contrast cosmological argument essay necessary being as he is not contingent upon anything else. Another simpler version of the Cosmological Argument is the Kalam argument. This is an Islamic form of the argument which goes back to the Muslim philosopher Al-Kindi but which has also seen support from contemporary philosopher, William L Craig.
However, the Cosmological Argument also faces several objections. In response to this, it has been argued that there must be an exception to the rule and that this is proved by its reductio ad absurdum form; if there was no exception, no uncaused causer, then the universe would have no cause and it could never come to exist.
There is, though, also a retort to this response to the objection, cosmological argument essay. It could be argued that instead of God being the exception to the causal rule, the universe itself could be the exception, with only the things within it having to follow the rule. Furthermore, we could say that the existence of the universe does not need any further explanation: it simply is. A further objection comes from Hume, who, cosmological argument essay, cosmological argument essay line with his epistemology, suggests our cognitive inability to comprehend the nature of a metaphysical superentity powerful enough to bring the universe in to existence, cosmological argument essay.
In cosmological argument essay way, he argues that we have no reason to infer what brought the universe in to existence. An unwarranted inference is required to claim that it is actually God, cosmological argument essay.
Hume also argues that the Cosmological Argument suffers from the fallacy of composition, an idea later supported by Russell. The fallacy of composition is the fallacy of assuming that since there is some property common to each part of cosmological argument essay group, it follows that this property applies to the group as a whole. Therefore, although every individual part of the universe may have a cause, it does not necessarily follow that the universe itself cosmological argument essay have a cause.
To conclude, the Cosmological argument is an a posteriori argument whose aim is to attempt to prove the existence of God. Both the Kalam cosmological argument and those of St. Thomas Aquinas attempt to prove this existence through cosmological argument essay ad absurdum means, demonstrating that without a first cause, the present state would be impossible.
However, the strongest objection to the cosmological argument is as a result of its a posteriori basis; that what we see and experience, cosmological argument essay, within the universe, must apply to the universe as a whole. Hume objects to the assumption that because that within the universe is subject to causation, the universe as a whole must also follow this rule. Although it can be argued this fallacy of composition does not always apply in every circumstance, there is no cosmological argument essay of ensuring that it does not apply in terms of the whole universe, and in turn the soundness of the cosmological argument cannot be ensured.
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William Lane Craig and CosmicSkeptic Discuss The Kalam Cosmological Argument
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· The cosmological argument has many variations of which only one will be explored in the following paragraphs. The argument is stated thus: the world (or universe) exists, and since it exists, there must have been a cause for its existence; therefore, some being, namely God, must have created it. The following will systemically explore the premises and resultant conclusion to determine Estimated Reading Time: 4 mins · Cosmological Argument is one of those arguments that discusses about God’s existence on the basis of some proofs that verify the existence of God. The Cosmological Argument gives an explanation about the existence of God, and is built around that explanation and experience as opposed to the Ontological Argument that is based on an a priori argument which states that when · The strengths of the cosmological argument The strengths of the cosmological argument are the strengths of inductive reasoning: inductive arguments begin with something that we can observe. Inductive reasoning begins with experience which may be universal (i.e. everyone has had it) or it may at least be blogger.comted Reading Time: 4 mins
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