Philosophy of Religion - Cosmological Argument - Summary Revision Notes
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Course
Philosophy of Religion
Institution
University Of Oxford
These revision notes formed part of the revision booklet I compiled to achieve a 1st class Philosophy and Theology Degree.
This particular document contains the main arguments for this topic including the objections and replies.
Also, the document contains quotes and arguments from key think...
• What is the Cosmological Argument
• Context of the Cosmological Argument
• Aquinas’ Cosmological Argument
• Aquinas’ Argument from Contingency
• Hume: There Could be an Infinite Chain of Contingent Causes
• Pruss: There could not be, this is an Inadequate Answer
• Universe is contingent because parts of the universe are contingent?
• Russell - This is the Fallacy of Composition
• Reichenbach - The Universe is Contingent but not because its parts are
• Reply to Premise 9 - Why must the Necessary Cause be something other than the
Universe?
• Kalam Argument
• Argument relies on Causality
• We have never seen something come out of nothing
• Could argue that the Universe may not have begun from nothing
• Cosmological argument is built on Assumptions
• Not the God we know
• The Universe filling the ‘Necessary Being’ Gap
What is the Cosmological Argument?
• In brief, the cosmological argument is an argument for the existence of God which
claims that all things in nature depend on something else for their existence
(i.e., are contingent), and that the whole cosmos must therefore itself depend
on a being which exists independently or necessarily.
Context
• Although the cosmological argument is one of the oldest philosophical arguments
for the existence of God, a significant development happened in the thirteenth
century with St Thomas Aquinas.
Aquinas’ Cosmological Arguments
• Aquinas posited three different cosmological arguments, argument from
motion, causation, and contingency.
, Briefly - What does he argue?
• The basic premises for all of his cosmological arguments argue along the lines of:
There are things that are in motion, caused, contingent. These things require
something else to move, cause, create them and so on. The chain of causation
cannot go back forever. Therefore, there must be an unmoved mover, an
uncaused cause or an uncreated being.
What is Aquinas’ Argument from Contingency?
In his Summa Theologica, Aquinas argued that we need a causal explanation for the
existence of contingent beings.
What is a Contingent Thing?
• A contingent thing is something that is dependent on something else for its
existence and could have not existed.
What is a Necessary Thing?
• A necessary thing exists independently of anything else and has always
existed, will always exist and cannot not exist.
His argument can be summarised as the following:
1. A contingent being (a being such that if it exists, it could have not existed or could
cease to exist) exists.
2. This contingent being must have a cause of or explanation for its existence.
3. The cause of or explanation for its existence is something other than the contingent
being itself.
4. What causes or explains the existence of this contingent being must either be solely
other contingent beings or include a non-contingent (necessary) being.
5. Contingent beings alone cannot provide a completely adequate causal account
or explanation for the existence of a contingent being.
6. Therefore, what causes or explains the existence of this contingent being must
include a non-contingent (necessary) being.
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