Metaphysics

1
Metaphysics

• Philosophy and God

2
Metaphysics Defined

• This is the branch of philosophy that studies the
  nature of reality.
• The term itself means after or beyond the
  physics which refers to Aristotles work beyond
  the physical world
• The key question in metaphysics is What is real?

3
Does God Exist?

• Worded another way, we should ask, Is God real?
• Some philosophers say yes, others say no, others
  still say there is no way to prove it either way
• Those who say yes begin with the belief in God
  Credo ut intelligam I believe in order that I
  might understand

4
Arguments for the Existence of God

• There are two ways that one argues the existence
  of God
• A priori an argument which attempts to
  determine knowledge of God solely by means of
  intellectual insight, independent of the senses

5
Arguments for the Existence of God

• A posteriori an argument which is based on the
  observations about the world that leads to a
  claim that God is a logical result of reasoning
  about these facts

6
Four Main Arguments

• There must be a God because
• The idea of a supremely perfect being requires
  existence
• This a priori argument which is known as an
  Ontological Argument

7
Four Main Arguments

• There must be a God because
• The mere existence of the world requires an
  explanation
• Why are we here?
• This a posteriori argument is known as the
  Cosmological Argument

8
Four Main Arguments

• There must be a God because
• The order and design of the world requires a
  designer
• Who did all this?
• This a posteriori argument is known as the
  Teoleogical Argument

9
Four Main Arguments

• There must be a God because
• Our moral obligations require a source
• We are to be good/We are to act good because
• This argument is known as the Moral Argument

10
Saint Anselm (1033 1109 CE)

• Archbishop of Canterbury
• Founder of Scholasticism
• First writer of the Ontological Argument

11
Anselms Ontological Argument

• If we were to conceive of the ultimate
  something which nothing greater could be
  conceived that being would be God
• This means that no idea that we could think of is
  bigger than this idea
• Relied on reason alone when constructing his
  argument

12
Anselms Ontological Argument

• God is that than which no greater can be
  conceived
• If God is that than which no greater can be
  conceived, then there is nothing greater than God
  that can be imagined.
• Therefore, there is nothing greater than God that
  can be imagined
• If God does not exist, then there is something
  greater than God that can be imagined
• Therefore, God exists

13
Anselms Ontological Argument

• The Greatest Conceivable Being is Anselms
  conception of God
• If God is the GCB, then one logically cant
  imagine anything greater
• When one compares an existent God with a
  nonexistent God, an existent God is always
  greater
• If God were nonexistent, then we could imagine a
  greater God, namely an existent God
• Therefore, there is a God

14
Kants Critique of Anselm

• An absolutely necessary being is not proved by
  the fact that reason requires it
• He asks, under what conditions will a triangle
  have three sides?
• The answer when and where there is a triangle
• To say, if there is a triangle is a conditional
  statement

15
Kants Critique of Anselm

• If there is a triangle doesnt necessarily mean
  there is a triangle
• Kant asserts that Anselm is defining God into
  existence
• According to Kant, Anselm is asking us to form a
  concept in such a way that we include existence
  with meaning
• The reality of a Supreme Being without defects
  doesnt prove its existence

16
Saint Thomas Aquinas (1225-1274 CE)

• Argued the existence of God can be based on 5
  Proofs
• These 5 Proofs are based on similar proofs
  already outlined by Aristotle

17
Aquinas Arguments from Contingency (Proofs 1 3)

• These proofs are known as the Cosmological
  Argument
• This is an argument for the existence of God that
  claims that there must be an ultimate causal
  explanation for the universe as a totality exists
• We call this a Cosmology

18
Cosmology

• The ancient Greeks were the first to refer to the
  world as a cosmos an ordered system rather than
  random chaos
• We observe an orderly world
• We ask how did it become so orderly?
• Can it be that a world just happened to form and
  that what is operative in the world is random due
  to the chance motion of atoms?
• Is there some regularity and uniformity of nature
  that is due to the activity of something more
  like a mind?
• Behind the visible world is there an Intelligence
  or Reason that imposes order?

19
Cosmology

• For Believers, Intelligence/Reason God
• All cosmological arguments start from the basic
  premise that there are certain facts about the
  world that we must explain.
• From this point of departure, the arguments
  proceed to propose God as the best explanation of
  these facts about nature
• Because they begin with alleged facts about the
  world known through sense experience, the
  arguments are a posteriori

20
Proof Number 1 Motion

• The Prime Mover (The First Mover)
• Aquinas argues that some things are in motion
• Anything moved is moved by another
• There cant be an infinite series of movers
• So
• There must be a first mover a mover that isnt
  itself moved by another
• This we call God

21
Prime Mover Explained

• Trees grow and die
• Human beings are born, mature, and grow old
• But how do you account for all of these changes
  if nothing changes by itself?
• Something else acts upon the object to cause
  change. But the cause of a given change is itself
  the result of a previous change and so on
• Aquinas concluded we are ultimately led to a
  source of change that is itself unchanged and
  this is what we call God

22
Proof Number 2 Causation

• The First Cause
• Some things are caused
• Anything caused is caused by another
• There cant be an infinite number of causes
• So
• There must be a first cause a cause that isnt
  itself caused by another
• This we call God

23
First Cause Explained

• Imagine a train running down a track
• If someone asked you what made the last car in
  the train move, you would say the car in front
• If that person asked what made that car move, you
  answer the car in front of that one
• The questions would continue until you reach the
  engine, which you would describe as the source of
  the motion
• What happens in the present is dictated by the
  past. It goes on until we reach God

24
Problems with the analogy

• Most modern interpreters of the cosmological
  argument reject this analogy
• They argue, quite rightly, that the engine isnt
  necessarily the source of the movement
• Today, cosmologists argue that at any point in
  time there is a series of relationships of
  dependence that lead to God as the source of all
  changes and of all causation.
• In other words, God is the source of all change
  in an ultimate sense and the cause of there being
  something rather than nothing

25
Contingency Revisited

• Basic to these two arguments is the notion of
  contingency or dependency
• Contingency has two indicators
• The fact that every change in the world is the
  result of some source of change
• The fact that every effect results from a priori
  causation
• Everything that changes presupposes some previous
  source of the change. Things dont change by
  themselves.

26
Proof Number 3 Necessity

• God is a necessary being
• Every contingent being at some time fails to
  exist
• If everything were contingent, then at some time
  there would have been nothing
• So
• There could be nothing now which to Aquinas
  was/is false
• So not everything is contingent
• So there is a necessary being
• And this we call God

27
Necessity Explained

• To say that something is contingent/dependent
  means that the contingent thing is possible and
  that it doesnt have to exist
• In the world, everything is contingent or
  possible
• If all things were only possible, then at some
  point in time, they would not have existed
• There must be a being who is not contingent but
  necessary, a being who doesnt depend on anything
  else for its existence, a being with whom
  contingent beings depend
• This Being we call God

28
Proof Number 4 Greatest Being

• This is an argument which deals with degrees of
  perfection
• Some things are greater than others
• Whatever is great to any degree gets its
  greatness from that which is greatest
• So there is a greatest being, which is the
  source of all greatness
• This we call God

29
Greatness Explained

• This argument is based on Platos understanding
  of metaphysics
• It assumes that there are degrees of reality
• Remember Platos forms (that for everything in
  our reality, there exists a perfect version of
  that beyond the physical world
• Because this is a really old view, contemporary
  circles do not consider this one convincing
• It does, however, provide our understanding of
  what it means when we say that God is perfect
• It is a moral argument

30
Proof Number 5 The Argument from Design

• This is known as the teleological argument
• It is the most popular argument for the existence
  of God
• The order and the purpose manifest in the working
  of things in our universe demands a creator, a
  God
• This is still a powerful argument for
  contemporary creationists Intelligent Design
  Theory

31
William Paley Designs Proponent

• 1743 1805, Theologian
• The Design argument finds its classic formulation
  in Paleys Natural Theology 1802

32
Paleys Watchmaker Analogy

• Suppose that you are walking along a meadow and
  discover a watch lying on the ground
• Paley suggest that our attitude towards the watch
  would be very different from our attitude towards
  a nearby stone
• You immediately conclude that the watch was
  placed there, unlike the stone, by forces other
  than wind and weather
• It was the product of an intelligent designer
• Even if you didnt know that it was a watch, you
  would have to conclude that it made by some
  intelligent force

33
Watchmaker Continued

• The very intricacy and detail of the mechanism
  would alone be sufficient to establish that it
  was the product of a conspicuous designer
• If the watch was badly made or did not keep time
  perfectly, you would conclude that it did not
  come into existence by chance, but was the
  deliberate result of the watchmaker
• Just as the watch is a product of the watchmaker,
  the universe is a product of God