The teleological argument

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  • Created by: chloeb123
  • Created on: 11-02-19 15:52
Who agreed with the teleological argument?
Aquinas, Paley, Tennant and Swinburne
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Who disagreed with the teleological argument?
Hume, Kant, Darwin and Dawkins
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Who originally devised the teleological argument?
Aquinas
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What type of argument is the teleological argument?
Inductive, a posteriori, teleological
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What is the aim of the teleological argument?
To prove the existence of God as a designer/creator
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In what two things did Aquinas discuss the teleological argument?
In his book 'Summa Theologica' and in the fifth of his five ways of proving God's existence
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What is the fifth way taken from?
The governance of the world
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What things do we see that act for an end?
Things that lack knowledge such as natural bodies
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What is the sight of things which lack knowledge and act for an end evident from?
Their acting always, or nearly always, in the same way, so as to obtain the best result
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What is it due to that things reach their end?
Design
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What cannot move towards an end?
Whatever lacks knowledge
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How can things that lack knowledge reach their end?
If directed by some being endowed with knowledge and intelligence
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What is the intelligent being that exists by whom all natural things are directed to their end?
God
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What did Aquinas argue from about proof of a designer?
Design qua regularity
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Everything in the world works together to achieve what?
Order
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What do inanimate objects not have?
No mind or rational powers to achieve order
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What analogy did Aquinas use to explain a designer and natural bodies?
The archer and the arrow
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Explain the archer and arrow analogy
For an arrow to reach its destination it must be directed first of all by the archer. In the same way natural bodies are directed by a designer to reach their end which is God
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In what book did Paley develop his own version of the teleological argument?
Natural Theodicy
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What analogy did Paley use to explain his teleological argument?
The analogy of the watchmaker
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Explain the analogy of the watchmaker
A man walks across a heath and he comes across a stone and a pocket watch. He concludes the stone has been there forever, with no purpose. He cannot make the same conclusions about the watch as it is too complex to not have a purpose
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Give an example of an intricacy in nature
The eye
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What did Paley compare the eye to?
A telescope
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What did Paley state about the eye and telescope?
"There is precisely the same proof that the end was made for vision as there is that the telescope was made for assisting it."
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Give another example of an intricacy in nature
The planets. The rotation of them due to the existence of gravity and the laws of motion were even more evidence of a divine hand at work in the universe
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Who devised the Anthropic Principle?
Tennant
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In what book did Tennant devise the anthropic principle?
Philosophical Theology
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What is the anthropic principle revolving around?
Humankind
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What did Tennant believe was the best evidence of design in the universe?
In the way the universe supports intelligent life
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What did the anthropic principle include?
The aesthetic principle
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What did Tennant argue in his aesthetic principle?
Nothing seen in Darwin's theory of evolution explains why humans feel a love and appreciation of art, music, literature, etc. They do not aid us in survival and natural selection doesn't explain them
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Who did Tennant believe put the capacity for joy in us?
Our designer - God
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What did Swinburne state makes it difficult to believe that there is not a designer at work?
The complexity of the universe
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What did Swinburne accept?
The anthropic principle
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What did Swinburne note about the anthropic principle?
Even though the world could have become chaotic from the big bang, the fact that it does not point to an external designing or ordering force
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What argument does Swinburne use to state that the Earth is too finely tuned to be like this on its own?
A fine tuning argument
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What is the fine tuning argument?
Science can explain the fine tuning that scientific laws work well together, that certain genetic mutations have worked in humankind's favour. What science cannot explain is why all these occurences have coordinated themselves in our favour
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What does Swinburne note about science?
It can only explain scientific/natural laws to explain phenomena. This does not extend to explaining laws themselves, instead it is understood as brute fact, they just are
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What is Swinburne's personal explanation of scientific laws?
We should understand the existence of scientific laws in terms of purpose which has been put in place for them. This is best explained by the existence of an omnipotent being
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What does Ockham's razor famously state to be the best answer?
All things being equal, the simplest answer is probably the best answer
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What does Swinburne argue is the best, simplest answer to the temporal order (regularities of sucession) which exist throughout time and space?
The existence of a designer - God
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In what book did Hume produce his detailed teleological argument?
Dialogues concerning natural religion
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What fictional character of Hume's discussed his views of design?
Cleanthes
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What did Cleanthes state about design?
Every aspect of the natural world bears the marks of apparent design and fits together like a machine
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What is the example provided by Cleanthes to show apparent design?
The human eye is perfectly suited to seeing due to the lens, cornea and retina which seem to have been thought up superior intelligence
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Why was the human eye designed by a being with greater intelligence?
The design and construction of the eye is more skillful than anything that could have been done with human hands. The creator must have had intelligence in proportion to the magnitude and grandeur of his work
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What is the intelligent being that designed the human eye?
The God of classical theism (omnipotent, omnipresent, omniscient and omnibenevolent)
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Who was the other character created by Hume to criticise Cleanthes?
Philo
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What did Philo state in his criticisms?
To use an analogy properly the two things compared must be similar
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Give Philo's example which explains his criticisms
If you looked at a house you may conclude that a builder or architect designed it for a purpose and it shows evidence of design. You cannot compare this to the universe as there are no points of comparison. We also don't have enough experience of it
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How can the example of the house and universe be compared to a designer?
When God is compared to a human designer we limit God to a less than perfect being (like humans are). Humans make things together and we would have to assume the universe was made by many Gods
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What other theory does Philo get close to suggesting?
Darwin's theory of evolution (natural selection)
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How does Philo get close to suggesting natural selection?
Animals which are not adapted to their surroundings, will simply die and therefore the apparent design in the animal kingdom exists due to the sheer need for survival
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What is the other theory that Philo toys with?
That the universe is actually being spun from the abdomen of a gigantic spider
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Explain Philo's theory of the universe being spun from the abdomen of a gigantic spider
Apparent order and design do not necessarily point to an intelligent brain. Webs are spun with order and design but are not created with brain power, they are created by abdomen power
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What does Philo mean with his theory of the universe being spun from the abdomen of a gigantic spider?
In a world dominated by spider, it would be just as likely that they would think of their God as spinning webs as we would of God having human-like thought
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What is Hume's view on evil?
The existence of evil seriously undermines the likelihood of a loving God
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How does Hume's view on evil relate to God?
The design argument doesn't point to the God of classical theism. Even if the design argument is valid, it may have been by a lesser or apprentice God
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What did Hume think that this world might be?
This world might have been one of many failed experiments in design by such an apprentice God
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What did Hume also have sympathies with?
The Epicurean Hypothesis
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What does the Epicurean Hypothesis state?
Initially the universe was chaotic but the huge amount of time that the universe has existed has resulted in natural forces eventually calming down and ordering themselves into some kind of system giving us the illusion of design
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What does Kant question?
How we can even be sure that order exists in our world
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What does Kant reject?
He rejects design arguments
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Why does Kant reject design arguments?
Humans naturally categorise and order our own experiences
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What could humans be putting into our world that is actually not there?
We could be projecting order onto the world when it is not actually there
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What might be in chaos and we might not know?
The world
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Why might we not know that the world is actually in chaos?
We cannot see phenomena
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How does Kant argue can prove the existence of God?
Using the existence of our inner moral law as the starting point
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What did Darwin use to disprove God?
His theory of evolution; natural selection
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In what book did Darwin disprove God?
On the Origin of Species
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Explain natural selection
Animals are killed due to their weak characteristics being exploited. For instance the weakest buffalo is killed by a lion pack. Animal genes mutate to increase their chance of survival. They evolve into new species
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How does Darwin's theory of evolution challenge the teleological argument?
States things are the way they are due to evolution which never ends. Things aren't designed, it is simply a selection evolution process
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What is Darwin challenged by?
The anthropic principle
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How is Darwin challenged by the anthropic principle?
Nothing in Darwin's theory explains why intelligent life (humans) enjoy beautiful things like music. These things do not help animals to survive and there is no need for their existence. Joy was put into us by God
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In what book did Dawkins discuss his design?
The Blind Watchmaker
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What did Dawkins state about design relating to natural selection?
"The living results of natural selection... impress us with the illusion of design."
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What did Dawkins state was the only watchmaker in nature?
"Blind forces of physics."
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What does Dawkins argue creates an illusion of design?
Natural selection
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What does Dawkins think is the only thing responsible for what we know as intelligent life?
Genes
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What does Dawkins use to describe units of cultural inheritance?
Memes
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What are memes?
Ideas that have also been operated on by natural selection
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Give an example of a meme
We inherit some cultural values of those who came before us, who were strong enough to pass on their genes
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Dawkins argues what about the appreciation of beauty due to the stated meme?
Humans appear to have an appreciation of beauty but it is actually no more than part of the survival mechanism
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Who disagreed with the teleological argument?

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Card 3

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Card 4

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What type of argument is the teleological argument?

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Card 5

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What is the aim of the teleological argument?

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