Describe the main strengths and weaknesses of the cosmological argument for the existence of God.
a.) Describe the main strengths and weaknesses of the cosmological argument for the existence of God (14) The term cosmological comes from the Greek cosmos, 'world' or 'universe'. The cosmological argument is based on facts about the world. Cosmology refers to the study of the universe.1 Unlike the Ontological Argument, the Cosmological Argument proceeds a posteriori. It begins with a very general claim about the physical universe that is meant to be supported by observation - e.g., the claim that some events have causes - and then proceeds to the conclusion that there must be a supernatural agent that somehow causes or explains this fact of experience.2 Aquinas' argument arrives at 'That which is necessary to explain the universe' or that which is necessary to explain causation or contingency. We do not know what God is, but whatever God is, God is whatever is necessary to explain the universe's existence. It is important to recognise that God is de re necessary (factually necessary) - necessary in and out of himself and cause of himself.3 An example of de re necessary being... 'all bears are brown' - this is a synthetic statement, statements which are true because of the evidence. They may or may not be true.4 St Thomas Aquinas, in the thirteenth century, formulated the famous 'five ways' by which God's existence can be demonstrated philosophically, I will be
Plato and Nietzsche on Authority
Compare, contrast and evaluate Plato and Nietzsche on authority. Nietzsche and Plato have many similarities in their discussion of political philosophy. Both dislike and hold contempt for democracy, and both favour a meritocratically chosen elite holding authority. There are even many similarities between the characteristics that they require in the group. However, there are differences too. Nietzsche doesn't outline a strict theory of authority, as Plato does. His governmental 'system', although it hardly is, could be interpreted, and has been, in many different ways. And, although both of them think that they have justified their authority, there have been several discussions on to whether they are, and in what society they would be relevant. These discussions are perhaps at the core of finding the key differences and usable elements of their philosophies. The notion of authority can be discussed in two main senses. For one, it can be used to discuss a person or group's right to rule. The other is when you talk of someone being an authority on a topic. Both of these involve the subordination of personal judgement to that of another and most political theorists would consider this subordination to be binding. One of the main problems is if you should surrender your own personal judgement independent of the content of the authority's ideas - both Nietzsche and Plato would
A Critical Analysis of Lao Tzu's Tao Teh Ching - Chineses philosophy.
A Critical Analysis of Lao Tzu's Tao Teh Ching Understanding Non-Western Philosophy Joni Mäkivirta Teoreettisen filosofian proseminaarityö Esitetään 4 elokuuta 1999 Helsingin yliopisto Contents . Introduction 2 2. The Nature of Chinese Philosophy 4 3. The Argument of Tao Teh Ching Criticised 6 4. Conclusion 8 BIBLIOGRAPHY NOTES "It lies in the nature of Grand Virtue to follow the Tao and the Tao alone. Now what is the Tao? It is Something elusive and evasive ... And yet it contains within Itself a Substance. Shadowy and Dim! And yet It contains within Itself a Core of Vitality. The Core of Vitality is very real, It contains within Itself an unfailing Sincerity. Throughout the ages Its Name has been preserved. In order to recall the Beginning of all things. How do I know the ways of all things at the Beginning. By what is within me."1 . Introduction In recent years there has been an increasing interest in non-western philosophy. The rigid position of regarding philosophy as a purely Western activity has been challenged partly because philosophers have come to realise the limits of Western rationalism and the impossibility of building wholly coherent logical systems.2 These consideration have led some philosophers like Feyerabend to conclude that all systems of knowledge are ultimately incommensurable; i.e understanding can only take
Synoptic Study, Satre, Engels and Marx
Sartre and Marx and Engel's on Freedom Jean-Paul Sartre's fundamental views on freedom are simple - mans freedom is absolute. How he comes to this conclusion is more complex. He starts with the assertion that God does not exist. Sartre neither explains this nor makes any attempt to justify his atheism. This does seem a rather risky way to start a theory but as Sartre later explains his theory does not rely on atheism. From here Sartre goes on to launch the pre-requisite idea of Existentialism- existence precedes essence. Sartre, this time does take the time to explain his idea. He compares a human to the paper knife. The paper knife has a designer, its concept and purpose exists with in the mind of the creator before the knife is actually made. Its essence precedes its existence. Humans on the other had, according to Sartre, We have no designer as there would need to be a God meaning that are purpose can not exist before our existence, leading Sartre to conclude that mans existence precedes essence. From this basis Sartre comes to the conclusion that man is essentially with out purpose. With no God or pre existent reason to gives our life meaning we are in effect throne in to a world in which we are alone and purposeless. This is a frightening concept and the main reason why existentialism has a reputation of being a very depressing philosophy. However it is our
Nietzsche and Mill on Conventional Morality
Compare Contrast and Evaluate Nietzsche and Mill on Conventional Morality At the time Nietzsche and Mill were writing conventional morality was, and arguably still is today, Christian morality, best summarised as Kant's Deontological Ethics. Interestingly both of the two Philosophers take a similar stance towards this view of morality. They are both concerned that it's uniform approach leads to a stagnation of ideas, what Mill refers to as an "unthinking mediocrity" and Nietzsche calls "a herd morality". However they offer radically different alternatives, Nietzsche's assessment of the 'herd morality' develops into him championing 'Master Morality', whereas Mill's assessment develops into his liberal utilitarianism. These alternatives come about from the subtle differences in their assessments as to why these problems evolve, and it is through looking at how their alternative moral codes developed from their views on conventional morality that we can get the best illustration of how their views differ. It could be seen that Nietzsche's development from his criticism of conventional morality is more logical, in the sense that his morality is a logical evolution of his assessment, yet we must accept that - on the surface at least - society seems to hold closer Mill's ideals. One example of how Nietzsche seems to have the more logical approach would be Mill's justification of
Compare and contrast arguments for and against belief in life after death.
.) Compare and contrast arguments for and against belief in life after death (20 marks). 26/01/03 One initial problem with studying the belief in life after death is that there are a vast number of theories stating what they believe 'life after death' actually is. Therefore in order to effectively ascertain arguments for and against this idea, it is necessary to deal with each individual theory separately. Plato's theory of dualism1 argues that it is the mind that determines our personality and that the body is an outer shelf for the real self. The body is contingent and therefore destined for decay but the mind is associated with the higher realities such as truth, goodness and justice and is immortal. Plato believed that the soul continues after death. Plato said that there was a perfect idea/form for everything in existence. The idea of the thing is prior to the individual instance of it and so it must be more real. Ideas are not physical things so they must belong to a spiritual realm of reality, which is more real than the material realm. According to Plato the telos2 of the body is to be in the physical world and receive sense-impressions whereas the telos of the soul is to travel into the realm of heavenly ideas and understand them. Before our immortal souls became imprisoned in our bodies they were acquainted with these heavenly ideas and so our soul wants to
Introduction to Philosophy.
Teacher : Father Christopher Caruana [email protected] Introduction to Philosophy : Philosophy consists of several branches and these are : . History of philosophy 2. Law 3. Moral Philosophy & Ethics 4. Mind Epistemology 5. Knowledge & Mind Senses 6. Political 7. Metaphysics (What is a Being?) 8. Philosophy of religion 9. Logic - Mathematical Logic. There are also types of philosophy and these are: . Classical /Ancient 2. Medieval 3. Modern 4. Contemporary Philosophy emerged from myth in 6Bc. Mythology is primly a religious answer concerning divinity & gods. The myths' genre is a literary poetry prose type. A myth tells us why a thing came about. It is not there to give a historical experience but why did it happen. The myth is a story. Example : the myth of creation as it wants to tell us why there are humans , animals universe etc... Myth contrasts the historical truth, mythology asks questions about : * Meaning * Origin * Life * Existence * Time /Eternity Homer Hesoid and Vergil --> The first one was a poet who tried to answer the question about how the world came about. The 3 Milesians Philosophers: Thales of Miletus Anaximander Anaximenes Tried to explain that the world came from water Thought that the infinite made the universe Thought that everything came from air /fumes. Concepts in Philosophy: Nomos --> Which means
Sartre is a very strong proponent of strong determinism, that is, he does not merit any sort of determinism at all when considering human action.
Prompt: Sartre is a very strong proponent of strong determinism, that is, he does not merit any sort of determinism at all when considering human action. I present the case for a minimal determinism that involves restriction to choices between limited options, as determined by both the mental and physical worlds. We do not live our lives in despair, constantly worrying about what may happen unexpectedly. For many people, life does seem like something that we control handedly. Life seems to be something we can direct, or at least influence. Supposing there are circumstances beyond our control, they rarely seem to present us a problem; we live contently believing that we are at least partly responsible for our fates. Seldom do we question the truth in this, of whether or not we have some say in the direction of our lives. Some would argue this is not so. Some of these people would happen to look at a deity or hard sciences to lead us to a cogent determined purpose. The fact remains that whether or not purpose lies in causality, a chain of events full of causes and effects may be explained perfectly if we had the knowledge. Determinists would argue that our free will is simply an illusion and we are deluding ourselves if we believe we have control. Sartre would argue that even the most seemingly random of occurrences are in fact entirely our fault; no matter what we
Plato's Theory of Forms
Essay Answers- Plato's Theory of Forms Plato had many philosophies but the main one was his theory of forms, which we sometimes refer to as the theory of ideas. Plato's Forms are not mental entities, nor even mind-dependent. They are independently existing entities whose existence and nature are graspable only by the mind, even though they do not depend on being so grasped in order to exist. He believed that as well as the world that we live in and experience, which is a material world, there is another eternal world of concepts or forms. This eternal world is more real than the world, which we experience through the senses and it the object of knowledge not opinion. The world of sense experience has constant change, and this was a popular topic in philosophy as there is no truth or evidence that the world never stays the same from one moment to the next. Plato believed that that the answer was that there is certain truth, but this material world cannot reveal it. It can only present appearances, which lead us to form opinions, rather than knowledge. The truth is to be found on a different plane, in the non-material world of ideas or forms. Plato believed that if something was real, it had to permanent and unchanging. He thought that reality and perfect. When the Socrates asked him complex questions such as 'what is beauty?' or 'what is justice?' he was not trying to
Examine and Comment on a philosophical analysis of religious experience
Examine and Comment on a philosophical analysis of religious experience Religious experience appears to be a unique phenomenon. Despite other reported evidence for the existence of a transcendental reality, without human experience of such a force would such evidence ever have been appealed to? It appears that religious experience can be the basis for faith and a belief in God in a way that other arguments seek merely to validate and support. WILLIAM JAMES certainly thought so, and proposed that these experiences were the catalyst for the development of organised religion. But is such a position valid and compelling? Are religious experiences in themselves an a posteriori proof for the objective reality of the divine and should they be accepted as veridical? Difficulty arises in even defining religious experiences; it seems that there are a huge number of sometimes incompatible accounts. How does one begin to classify or categorise these? RICHARD SWINBURNE considers 5 categories in to which religious experiences fall; two public, and three private. Public experiences are those which are available to all, but on which religious significance can be placed. For example, viewing a beautiful sunset is an experience which all people can enjoy, provided they have full use of their senses and a view of the sky, but the conclusions drawn can be very different. A private experience
