Teleological
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Transcript of Teleological
Proving God Exists...AgainThe Teleological Argument
An argument from Design
look at the ipodcan you work out what it is for?look at it....
what about if you you were from the past?
An argument from Design
look at the flarecan you work out what it is for?look at it....
what about if you didn’t know what it was?
An argument from Design
look at the Alethiometercan you work out what it is for?look at it....
what about if you didn’t know what it was?
An argument from Design
where would you think all these things came from?
An argument from Design
where would you think all these things came from?why not just battered together over time?like a rock shaped like something?
Telos, teloiGreek againliterally ‘end’ (or point of)When things are pretty complicated you can usually tell what they are for (why they’ve been designed that way...)
either...
it’s because it is just so ordered and intricate...or it’s because it ‘does stuff’...
Is it Intricate?
Discuss
Is it Intricate?
oxygen/CO2 cyclethere’s loads of theminside/outside our bodies
Is it Intricate?
Physiology of various (all?) living systems
Is it Intricate?ecosystemsone thing dies, sometimes whole food webs can die out...
Is it Intricate?
and that’s just earth... think bigger
surely this is a little more impressive than any watch?
Our Worlddoes it have an ‘end’?
a telos?a purpose?picture pairs
so there you go... by analogy...1 The World around us resembles the
artefacts of human creation, in that they display COMPLEXITY2 The complexity of human artefacts comes from having been designed by an INTELLIGENT DESIGNER3 We have no reason to assume that what holds for human artefacts should not hold for the world around us4 Therefore, the complexity in the world, comes from having been designed and created by an intelligent being
so there you go... by analogy...
SO...what would you say...Deductive/Inductive?a priori/posteriori?
design in the world?
not a new ideaancient greeksAquinaseven taught in some schools in US as alternative to evolution
who made this?
how do you know?
who made this?
how do you know?
David Hume
on analogy
look in your support books
Look round the world: contemplate the whole and every part of it: you will find it to be nothing but one great machine, subdivided into an infinite number of lesser machines, which again admit of subdivisions to a degree beyond what human senses and faculties can trace and explain. All these various machines, and even their most minute parts, are adjusted to each other with an accuracy which ravishes into admiration all men who have ever contemplated them. The curious adapting of means to ends, throughout all nature, resembles exactly, though it much exceeds, the productions of human contrivance; of human designs, thought, wisdom, and intelligence. Since, therefore, the effects resemble each other, we are led to infer, by all the rules of analogy, that the causes also resemble; and that the Author of Nature is somewhat similar to the mind of man, though possessed of much larger faculties, proportioned to the grandeur of the work which he has executed. By this argument a posteriori, and by this argument alone, do we prove at once the existence of a Deity, and his similarity to human mind and intelligence. (Hume, Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion)
Objection - claim 3grounds for analogy are too weak
the world is pretty different to all the designed things we see aroundthere are similarities, but not enoughthere is complexity, but it’s differentworld is more organic, appears that it has ‘grown’
ObjectionIf we make an analogy with with a vegetable...and that analogy is just as good, or even better...then we are drawing analogy between the world and not designed things
this argument begins to look less convincing
Tasktry to think of an analogy that supports the design argumentthink of one that you think does not
explain the differences, and which you find more convincing as an analogy
work in your tables, get the best of each
Task - for example...
analogy that supports the design argument
one that you think does not
reasons why best analogy
reasons why best analogy
Tasktry to think of an analogy that supports the design argumentthink of one that you think does not
explain the differences, and which you find more convincing as an analogy
work in your tables, get the best of each
Now think
carefully...
Idea is that you can tell something about Humans
by human creations...
What do you reckon you could work out about the ‘Designer’ of our world?
Objection 2: The Designer(s)
“A great number of men join in building a house or a ship, in rearing a city, in framing a commonwealth; why may not several deities combine in contriving and framing a world?”
Hume
2 Big ProblemsArgument from analogy
Analogyanalogy |əˈnaləjē|noun ( pl. -gies)
a comparison between two things, typically on the basis of their structure and for the purpose of explanation or clarification : an analogy between the workings of nature and those of human societies | he interprets logical functions by analogy with machines.
• a correspondence or partial similarity : the syndrome is called deep dysgraphia because of its analogy to deep dyslexia.See note at likeness .
• a thing that is comparable to something else in significant respects : works of art were seen as an analogy for works of nature.
meet William Paley
Cambridge Moral Philosopher
1743 - 1805
the watch analogy
In crossing a heath, suppose I pitched my foot against a stone, and were asked how the stone came to be there; I might possibly answer, that, for anything I knew to the contrary, it had lain there forever: nor would it perhaps be very easy to show the absurdity of this answer. But suppose I had found a watch upon the ground, and it
should be inquired how the watch happened to be in that place; I should hardly think of the answer I had before given, that for anything I knew, the watch might have
always been there. (...) There must have existed, at some time, and at some place or other, an artificer or artificers, who formed [the watch] for the purpose which we find it actually to answer; who comprehended its construction,
and designed its use. (...) Every indication of contrivance, every manifestation of design, which existed in the
watch, exists in the works of nature; with the difference, on the side of nature, of being greater or more, and that
in a degree which exceeds all computation.
– William Paley, Natural Theology (1802)
William Paleythinks that he’s still got some arguing left to do
he sees the problem that Hume sees with analogies too...
1. Human Artefacts have characteristic Y
2 Natural Objects also have characteristic Y
3. Human artefacts have Y because they have characteristic Z
4. Therefore, natural objects also have characteristic Z
Simple Argument from Analogy
William Paleyhe’s going to talk about design again
but he’s going to talk about design for a purpose
1. Natural objects display ‘design-like’ properties
2. Design-like properties are the result of intelligent design
3. Therefore, Natural objects are the product of design
Paley’s Argument
Do you see how he carefully avoids making any reference or comparison. He just sticks to
observations.
design is what?what marks something as designed is that it has a ‘role’
a telos
a purpose
EXAMPLEsword-billed hummingbirdwithout its long thin beak it would be unable to feed on the flowers that grow in their habitat
if one was born with a beak slightly the wrong length it couldn’t feed
on a wider scale species would go extinct
& there’s more...this is only one tiny example of complexity
we could think of many more
NB: for Paley; precise complexity + relation to purpose = purposive designthis must be ‘God’
So What Paley?well this means he avoids the problems of the other argument, the argument from analogy
we need to ask again, DO WE FIND THIS CONVINCING ?
Is that it?lets check his premises:
1. Natural objects display ‘design-like’ properties
• 2. Design-like properties are the result of intelligent design
• 3. Therefore, Natural objects are the product of design
a priori / a posteriori
?
Evolutionary
Theorya theory of gradual evolution over
a long period by the natural selection of
those varieties of an organism slightly better adapted to the
environment and hence more likely to produce descendants...
EXAMPLE - back to our bird
sword-billed hummingbirdits beak shape is quite simply the only one that works
one without its long thin beak it would have dies and so not passed on its less suitable design to offspring
if one was born with a beak slightly the wrong length it couldn’t feed
on a wider scale species would go extinct
so...we are given another option to explain the ‘purposive’ design or complex functionality exhibited in nature
it is there because anything that didn’t ‘work’ (and so didn’t look designed) have died out
anything that fits its purpose (survival & reproduction) does so...
Final thoughtclearly this does not show that intelligent design is not still the case
there is nothing about evolution that explicitly denies the idea of a creator
but the onus must lie with advocates of ID as if there was some guiding force in the evolutionary process there are several anomalies that require an explanation...
Final thoughtthis is not to say there are no answers to these questions, but it is worth bearing this in mind when considering the contemporary debate...
Dawkins& the rise of reductionist science
Dawkins’ work
QuickTime™ and aH.264 decompressor
are needed to see this picture.
Dawkins