Problems in Philosophy

1. Problems in Philosophy Weeks 2 & 3s – Ethics and Philosophy Center for Gifted Mrs Harragin

2. What is your view of God? • The Classical Theistic (Judeo/Christian) view is: • Eternal • Omnipotent • Omniscient • Omnipresent • Omni-benevolent • Perfectly good

3. Key questions • What does it mean to say ‘God is timeless’? • Can God be outside of time? • Are there things God cannot do? • Can God create a stone that He cannot lift? • Can God create a creature whose will is so free that God cannot control it? • Can God change the past? • Are there things God cannot know?

4. Does God exist? • In pairs make up an argument for the existence of God. • Use premises and a conclusion • Work out whether it is inductive/deductive, a priori or a posteriori • Swap with another pair • Critically analyse the other argument • Discuss the arguments with the other pair and create a new argument together.

5. Cosmological and Design Arguments for the existence of God - TASK • Class divide into 2 groups • Groups choose a leader • Task - produce a poster/leaflet etc about your argument in order to explain it to the other group • Then choose 2/3 people to go to the other group to learn about their argument, leaving 2/3 behind to explain own argument • Report back to your group

6. Argument for the Existence of God Teleological Argument = Design (they are one and the same!) Design: ‘The idea that things with a function or purpose, must have been created for that purpose.’ The philosopher, William Paley, used the idea of design to try and prove the existence of God. He looked at a watchand said if something like this requires a designer, how much more would the world need a designer 1. To design something takes intelligence and thought. 2. The world shows evidence of design. 3. Therefore, a being with intelligence and thought must have designed it. 4. Only God could have intelligence and thought enough to design the world. 5. Therefore, as the world exists, God must exist.

7. Argument for the Existence of God Cosmological Argument = Causation (they are one and the same!) Causation: ‘The argument that everything must have been started off (caused) by something else.’ St Thomas Aquinas 1.Nothing happens by itself, everything needs a cause 2. Therefore the universe must have a cause. 3. Only God could have caused a universe to come about. • Therefore, there must be a God. This argument relies on something called ‘cause and effect’. Everything that happens (effect) must have something that has made it happen (cause). E.g. a row of dominos fall (effect), someone pushed the first one (cause) or a universe exists (effect), someone (God) must have made it exist (cause).

8. Argument from experience Religious experience is when people experience the presence of the divine in some form or another Many millions of people claim to have had a religious experience They will say that this experience was real They describe it in detail The experience is often so powerful that it makes them change their lives. It is hard to refute these experiences Therefore God exists

9. Ontological Argument • “Ontological” – concerned with being • Originally written by St Anselm (b.1033) • Found in his book called Proslogion • Sharply criticised by many including Aquinas and Immanuel Kant • Supported by Rene Descartes and others

10. Ontological is a priori and deductive • Unlike the other arguments which are a posterioriand inductive • It is a priori because it proceeds from the idea of God rather than from experience - some feature of the universe • The argument is based on logical demonstration • It is deductive because if the premises are true the conclusion is true (i.e. not a probability)

11. Anselm’s argument – First Form • God is the greatest possible being (see definition) • If God exists as just an idea then a greater being can be imagined both in the mind and in reality • This being would then be greater than God • Thus God cannot exist only as an idea in the mind Conclusion: Therefore God exists both in the mind and in reality

12. Anselm’s argument – Second form • God is the greatest possible being (see definition) • It is greater to be a necessary being (cannot not be) than a contingent being • If God were a contingent being He could be imagined as not existing, then a greater being can be imagined of that cannot be conceived not to exist • This being would be greater than God • God is therefore a necessary being Conclusion: Therefore God must exist in reality

13. Summary God must be a necessary being, meaning, He cannot not exist. Necessary here means logical necessity. It would be a logical contradiction to claim that God does not exist, since any being who has the property of necessary existence could not fail to exist The technical term for this is – Analytic Existential Proposition

14. Debating the existence of God “The real contains no more than the merely possible” Kant

15. Debate • Use one of the debating topics • Each write a speech proposing or opposing the ‘motion’ • Choose two proposers and two opposers and a chair person • The ‘floor’ listens to the speeches and then makes points from their own speeches. • After summing up - vote

16. Motion for Debate:“Religion should never be mentioned in the school.”