Frederick Copleston and Bertrand Russell's and their responses to the Cosmological argument.

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Rebecca Birch. Philosophy.

Frederick Copleston and Bertrand Russell’s and their responses to the Cosmological argument

During the 18th century, Copleston referred to Leibnitz and also to Aquinas’s third way to formulate his argument. The key component to Leibnitz’s version of the cosmological argument originates from the thinking of Anaximander, who stated that the Earth must be at rest, because there is no more reason for it to move up than to move down. Archimedes said a balance with equal weights stays level for the same reason.  This claim rests on the principle that there must be a reason for everything. The principle cannot be proved, but if it is true it supports the Cosmological Argument.  There must be a reason why things exist; there must be a reason why things are changing.  There must also be a reason why things exist and happen, rather than existing and happening some other way.

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In Aquinas’ third way it states that all natural things have contingent existence, implying that if a thing can cease to be, then sooner or later it will cease to be. Therefore, every natural thing would have ceased to exist by now because once everything disappears, there is no way for it to come back into being on its own. Hence there must be something which has necessary existence, which can endure when other things cease, and so bring them back into existence. Clearly something has kept natural things in existence, because they obviously exist now.

Consequently, Copleston concluded that ...

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