Philosophy Modules 3/4

T/F: One of Darwin's great insights in the development of evolutionary theory was the role of the gene in variation and inheritance.

False: he didn't know about the gene and instead believed in a blending method that if true would lead to gradualism. Mendel came up with the unit of the gene.

In creation ex nihilo, God makes the world by configuring its stuff.

False: creation is not making or configuring of stuff

Contradictions between Genesis 1 and 2:

Human male is created apart from the female. Adam is made before the other creatures, which are made for him. In the first story, humans are made at the end as the pinnacle. Eve is created near the end in the second story. the modern literal would say this is mythological. However, the Augustine literal would ask what does the author intend to communicate about reality. He is saying you should understand this literally as communicating something that can only be communicated with these images.

In the first story of Genesis, the sun and the moon are made on the...

4th day

What is the hypothesis of God as a competing scientific hypothesis?

1. If you begin with the recognition of the watch as a machine then you aren't arguing for a watchmaker. You've already assumed the existence of watchmaker in seeing it as a machine. you've begged the question. 1. If you do not begin by seeing it as a machine, then you consider two alternative hypotheses: it is either produced by natural causes potentially understood by science (no evidence for God because it has been explained by science) or you say that it is produced by non-natural cause(s) that is God (opt for God as best explanation so long as natural explanation is lacking.) you push God aside once natural explanation arises. he is the God of the gaps, when the gaps get smaller, so does the God of the gaps. Fundamentally even if you are calling God a non-natural cause you are in reality treating God as if God is just like a natural cause. God becomes ubermensch (superman) - biggest thing around. He doesn't transcend the world, he is part of it just the biggest part. The result is atheism because God is expelled when the gaps are filled. The result is atheism due to a misconception of God not as creator but as maker of really complicated things.

William Paley's beliefs:

1. in moral philosophy, he was a utilitarian, meaning an action is good to the extent that it maximizes pleasure and minimizes pain. 2. he was a Christian apologist. Apology in the sense of giving defenses of doctrines of Christianity to presumed secular audiences. 3. most famous for "watchmaker argument" for the existence of God in Evidences of Christianity 4. fierce critic of slavery which still existed in England. Supported American Revolution, because he thought that it would lead to the end of slavery

Gregor Mendel lived in the...

19th century

What is the demiurge?

A responsible agent that brought about the mixing of both chaos and logos. this agent acts upon a chaotic receptacle in which the four elements exist unformed. He acts for the best when placing intelligibility into these unformed forms. He acts according to an exemplar or plan of what is best, how the world should be. The form of the world is the combination of all the best individual forms. This world is the best it can be, it can't be any better or worse.

Wisdom in Genesis 1:

According to Plato, wisdom is knowledge of the highest causes of things that allows us to put order in our own lives and the world around us. This is the first part of wisdom, knowledge of the highest causes of things.

What are the two principles of the Timaeus:

Chaos and Logos (order). Chaos deals with materiality and logos deals with intelligibility (realm of forms). Intrinsically, chaos and logos are separate and flee one another of their very nature.

What is premise 3 of the Divine Watchmaker?

Even if I've never known a watchmaker, it is evident that it is a machine.

What is existence as configuration - suchlike existence?

Existence is taken for granted. Interested in knowing why what exists exists like it does rather than some other way it could exist. For example, if things had gone differently in evolution maybe centaurs would exist rather than horses.

T/F: Augustine would say that like the Timaeus, the Genesis stories should be treated as probably and mythological.

False

T/F: Evolution could still happen, if organisms did not act for purposes.

False

T/F: A chance event is an event produced by coordinated and correlated causal chains.

False: a chance event is caused by uncorrelated causes

T/F: Hume thought that the Intelligent Design argument shows the existence of the Christian god, and objected to it because it follows that the Christian god would be evil.

False

T/F: Hume, like Aristotle, thought the aim of science is to identify the cause of an effect.

False

T/F: In the modern literal sense, there is no suggestion in the Genesis stories that there is stuff not created by God.

False

T/F: Plato intends the Timaeus to be a certain account of the formation of the world

False

T/F: The Watchmaker argument is a demonstrative argument.

False

T/F: The Watchmaker argument is interested in the question of the existence as such of the universe.

False

T/F: The best way of thinking of God in Genesis is like machinist following a blueprint to make a product.

False

T/F: The goal of Paley's work was to express his remorse for Christianity.

False

T/F: The point of the first Genesis story appears to be a moral point about the relation of human beings to God and other creatures.

False

T/F: There is no apparent conflict between the two Genesis stories.

False

T/F: the fundamental bodies in the receptacle out of which the earth is made are earth, air fire, and wind

False

T/F: What is meant by God's omnipotence is that God is the most powerful agent in the world.

False - God is not an agent in the world

T/F: In developing the theory of evolution, Darwin is seeking to emulate the success of Newtonian physics by isolating the forces at work in driving the evolution of a new species.

False, Jean Baptiste Lamark was the one who sought to emulate the success of Newtonian physics

T/F: Plato thought human beings were unique in the world because they were united to an eternal mind.

False: Aristotle thought this (nous)

The act of creation happened at the very beginning of the universe a very long time ago.

False: Creation does not take place at a time, but is eternal and its effect is ongoing.

T/F: Aquinas is a pantheist because he thinks that since God is existence as such, when God existence to a creature, he gives a part of Himself.

False: Does not give a part of Himself. Because He is existence as such, He can cause existence as distinct from Himself.

According to Aquinas, evil is a substantive being in the world that needs to be destroyed.

False: Gnosticism thinks of it as a substantive being. According to Aquinas it is the abstance of some being that ought to be present.

T/F: Aquinas thinks that if a creature is like God, God must be like a creature.

False: If a creature is like God because God creates it, and God creates all creatures, then God cannot be like any creature.

T/F: The idea of evolution of species originated with Darwin.

False: Others had been discussing it prior to him, particularly in the immediate past Jean Baptiste Lamark.

T/F: The developmental and orderly character of the second Genesis story need not be thought of as inconsistent with the evolution of species.

False: The first Genesis story is the developmental and orderly one, not the second.

T/F: In evolution, organisms do not act for ends, except for the end of producing new species.

False: They act for ends, although the end for which they act is not the evolution of a new species.

T/F: Aquinas thinks that it follows from what a creature is that it exists.

False: What a thing is is its essence. Aquinas thinks existence is not included in the essence of a creature

T/F: While Aquinas thinks that God's causes something to exist, He does not cause it to be the kind of thing it is.

False: What it is, its configuration, is a limit within the existence God gives it, not something apart from it that God does not cause.

An advantage of Gnosticism is that it does not make it easy to explain moral evil.

False: it makes it easy because of the eternal battle of dueling principles

T/F: It is not a fallacy to argue from the randomness of an event in a process to the randomness of the process.

False: just because an event is random are caused by uncorrelated events, doesn't mean the process is random (eg Carbon decay and the process of half life)

The doctrine of creation ex nihilo is found explicitly in the text of Scripture.

False: some think it is simplicity found in Genesis and Maccabees

T/F: Aristotle thought that each human being has his or her own mind.

False: the mind pre-exists and exists after death, and the same for all human beings. humans participate in nous.

What we gather from both Genesis accounts:

God is not presented as looking toward an exemplar or pre-existing pan of what he ought to do. He's just doing it, and recognizing it is good. God is like an artist or artificer. He acts upon something in Genesis, but does not follow a pre-determined plan or blueprint. So it is not clearly responsible for existence as such. Responsible for the way things are, presupposing existence as such.

What are the elements of Genesis 1?

God separates and makes. The narrative is as if acting upon chaos or void. there is order imposed upon such chaos. it unfolds in mathematically ordered way. there is a special status of human beings as images. Humans are the pinnacle. The creation story ends with a recognition that what he has done is good.

How does creation ex nihilo differ from Plato's demiurge?

Iin the demiurge, the logos was an independent realm from the demiurge. The demiurge looked to it as an independent realm of forms. However, with creation ex nihilo, intelligibility comes from the mind of God. The logos is God.

Should these internal contradictions from Genesis 1 be resolved in mythological terms, that is as not relating actual events?

In the modern literal sense, yes. this should be understood mythologically because it contains serious contradictions. However, in the Augustinian literal sense, no. What is it communicating to the reader based on the author's intentionality. Giving a literal account of God's responsibility for the way the world is, but given in the language and images of the time.

The story of the Timaeus is merely probable

It deals with material things which are changeable. not subject to science or wisdom because the realm of science and wisdom concerns eternal forms, and the world does not contain these; rather, it contains logos and chaos. There can be no wisdom possible concerning the story of the Timaeus. It does not give us an account of the norms for how to live because it lacks wisdom, which is the knowledge of the highest causes of things the forms that allows you to put order in your own life and the world around you.

Genesis 1 has what kind of feel?

It has the feel of a much more explanatory account than the second. It has a "day" by "day" account of the unfolding of creation.

What is the doctrine of Ex Nihilo?

It is not explicitly in scripture in the modern literal sense. Although, Augustine would allow for various passages to be suggestive of it. It was developed in the 3rd and 4th century as a response to Gnosticism. Doctrine: the creative act of God does not presuppose anything other than the power, mind, and will of God. There is no pre-existing matter upon which God acts in creation. No pre-existing agency that God employs in creation. No pre-existing forms that God looks to in creation. The Logos is not an independent being apart from God, but is God in the person of the Son.

According to Augustinian principles of interpretation, Genesis 1 should be interpreted...

It is not to be interpreted mythologically; rather, literally according to the intention of the author. Literal interpretation: the world has an order in its unfolding from God. God is responsible for the way the world is and its intelligibility.

Is the Timaeus factual?

It is presented as mythological. The factual truth doesn't matter. It is more about the meaningfulness of the story. It is not in order to satisfy wisdom, but to satisfy a certain curiosity.

Who was William Paley?

Lived from 1743-1805: he was an English Christian apologist, theologian and moral philosopher.

John and Genesis 1

Logos is the realm of forms and intelligibility. In the Gospel of John, it is spoken of as a person that existed with God before creation, and through that logos creation comes about. John sheds light on Genesis and Genesis sheds light on John. It is saying that there is a beginning before the beginning of time, but that beginning is not temporal. It is a kind of order, an eternal beginning

Logos in the Gospel of John:

Logos means intelligibility in Greek. "In the beginning was the Word (Logos), and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. all things came to be through Him, and without Him nothing came to be. What came to be through Him was life, and this was the light of the human race; the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it."

What is premise 4 of the Divine Watchmaker?

Machines are produced by machinists who are intelligent and make choices. Even if there are occasional errors in the watch, or parts that have no role, this still holds true.

When Carbon14 decays, what results is an isotope of....

Nitrogen

Is the Divine Watchmaker argument an argument of existence as such?

No: it is an argument of existence as configured. The watchmaker presupposes the materials to make the watch. There may be a being that arranges the world, but the existence of stuff is presupposed

Is the demiurge responsible for the existence as such?

No: the demiurge acts upon preexisting stuff. Chaos and logos already exist for the demiurge to act upon. The Demiurge simply has the power to bring these together where otherwise they would EXIST apart. He merely arranges what already exists.

The author of the Timaeus is...

Plato

What is the Timaeus?

Plato an account of the formation of the universe and an explanation of its impressive order and beauty. The universe is the product of rational, purposive, and beneficent agency. It is the handiwork of a divine Craftsman ("Demiurge") who, imitating an unchanging and eternal model, imposes mathematical order on a preexistent chaos to generate the ordered universe (kosmos). The governing explanatory principle of the account is teleological: the universe as a whole as well as its various parts are so arranged as to produce a vast array of good effects. For Plato this arrangement is not fortuitous, but the outcome of the deliberate intent of Intellect (nous), anthropomorphically represented by the figure of the Craftsman who plans and constructs a world that is as excellent as its nature permits it to be.

What is the second premise of the Divine Watchmaker?

Premise 2: But a clock or a pocket watch lying amidst all those ordinary things would cause wonder. It has complexity of moving parts, patterned in a harmony to produce a definite end to display time. You would notice the goal directed nature of the mechanism.

Who was David Hume?

Scottish Philosopher who lived from 1711-1776. He wasn't directly criticizing Paley's form of the argument, but rather the general form. 1. he was a thoroughgoing philosophical sceptic 2. he was skeptical of moral facts 3. he was a religious sceptic 4. he authored Treatise on Human Nature, Enquiry on Human Understanding, Enquiry Concerning the Principles of Morals 5. Free will compatible with determinism; rejection of miracles; empiricism and causal relations unknowable. 6. very influential on Immanuel Kant

What is premise 5 of the Divine Watchmaker?

The analogy premise: complexity of the world as a whole and in its parts however is much much greater than any humanly produced machine. Even if there are occasional errors in the world, or parts that have no role, this still holds true

Divinity in the Timaeus:

The earth itself is divine and a god as having a soul which the demiurge fashions for it. the notion of the gods is of beings greater than us. Gods come to exist having not previously existed, they are fashioned or made. This is not the conception of divinity that we see today where existence relies on the presence of a divine being that exists without cause.

Implications of Gnosticism:

The existence of a being is independent of God's creative act and almighty power. Much of what exists is not good, but evil. It contradicts Genesis, which said that what was created was good.

What is Hume's basic objection to Paley's Divine Watchmaker argument?

The problem is anthropomorphism: thinking of God as human like. Premise 1: considering the amount of disorder in the world, it doesn't seem like a very well made watch or mechanism. Either the watchmaker is of finite intelligence and doesn't know how to make it better, or of finite power and can't make it better if he knows how, or of finite goodness given the amount of suffering in the world, and isn't good enough to make it better even if he knows how and has the power to do so. Premise 2: But the God of Christianity is supposed to be infinitely intelligent, powerful, and good Conclusion: in any case, not the God of traditional religious belief, even if you grant the argument from analogy. You get a God but not the all powerful, all knowing, entirely good God you want.

T/F: If you read the Gospel of John in conjunction with the Genesis story, it suggests that there is something before time.

True

What is Gnosticism?

There is an uncreated principle of light and good that refers to Spirit and God as well as an equally uncreated principle of dark and evil that refers to matter. There is an eternal battle between these two principles in the cosmos in general as well as within the human person. Gnosticism is an easy way of explaining the moral struggle within oneself.

Why else does Hume criticize the Divine Watchmaker argument?

There is not enough comparison of worlds.

In the doctrine of creation ex nihilo, continuous creation means that everything that exists at every moment of its existence depends upon God's creative act for its existence.

True

T/F: A problem that is thought to plague Christian religious belief if evolution is true is that there is no purpose in the existence of species.

True

T/F: According to Aquinas, a miracle is God doing what God would ordinarily do with a secondary cause, but doing it without a secondary cause.

True

T/F: Aquinas thinks that in any process of development toward an end, the agent is ultimately aiming at God as its end.

True

T/F: Aristotle thought the soul perishes with the body.

True

T/F: For Aquinas, the order of Providence consists in God's presence as primary cause to all that happens in the natural order of the universe, enabling the causes of the natural order to act.

True

T/F: Many religious believers think that biological evolution poses a problem for religious belief because the existence of species looks random and blindly directed by nature, not God.

True

T/F: Occasionalism thought that attributing genuine causality to creatures took away from the power of God.

True

T/F: The demiurge does not create the world from nothing

True

T/F: The doctrine of Divine Providence holds that God has concern for and control over the whole order of meaning and purpose in the events that take place in the world.

True

T/F: The world is a divinity in the Timaeus

True

T/F: The Watchmaker argument appears to assume that the presence of natural objects in the world does not appear to be goal directed.

True: The Watch is contrasted with the natural object by the former having goal directedness.

T/F: Aquinas could have a problem with the uniqueness of the human as made to the image and likeness of God, because he thinks that image consists in the life of a rational animal.

True: Unless he can find a way of holding on to both. But he could have such a problem. He says humans are different from other animals due to their reason and will.

T/F: Aquinas thinks that if something is a human being, it cannot help but be rational and an animal.

True: that is the essence of any human being

What is existence as such?

You are not asking why the world is configured the way it is with the things that exist (e.g. why are there horses and not unicorns?). Rather, why is there anything at all? Why is there a universe at all such that there could be horses as opposed to centaurs?

The Watchmaker argument begins with imagining seeing what in a field?

a rock

The most perfect geometric object for plato is...

a sphere

What are the implications of the Creation Ex Nihilo doctrine?

all that exists other than God depends upon Go'd creative act for its entire existence, and every aspect of its existence. All matter depends upon God for its existence, all agency depends upon God for its existence, and all forms of things other than the Logos depend upon God for their existence. All that exists is good. Evil is the absence of existence that ought to be present. There is a difficulty as to how it can be that existence that ought to be present is not. Certainly if God wills existence, how can there be an absence of existence. The only way is if God allows creatures to fail as a condition of their being the genuine agents He creates them to be. The absence of being that ought to be present is the result of the created agents that God creates to develop being in the world.

The world contains both chaos and logos. Thus, it is necessary that...

an account of why the world we have is the way it is to explain the existence of both.

Timaeus as a dialogue answers the existence as...

configuration question NOT the existence as such question.

More implications:

creation is not a moment in a temporal past. Space, but especially time, is created by God. So creation can't be a moment in time, even a first moment of time. Everything that exists other than God depends upon God's creative act at every moment of its existence. This is the doctrine of continuous creation.

T/F: One of the problems involving evolution, that is pointed out in the video, is that there is a fossil record.

false

T/F: William Paley was the first to think up the intelligent design argument.

false

T/F: You cannot have a random events as part of a purposeful process.

false

In gnosticism spirit is a principle of.... and matter is a principle of ...

light, darkness

According to the Timaeus: Intelligibility is... Materiality is...

logos chaos

Genesis 2 is much more of a....

moral account, the second part of wisdom which is ruling. Everything is made for the sake of the man, including the woman. he is to have dominion over the world. Humans are created in intimate relation to God. Due to their relation to God, humans are made to be stewards of creation.

Genesis story 1

orderly process with culmination in the human species

Paley's argument by analogy for God: Divine Watchmaker: What is premise 1?

ordinary natural objects in the world do not prompt a desire to know how they came to be there. For example, if you came across a rock in a field you wouldn't question how it came to be there. It may simply always have been there. No further explanation is sought.

Genesis story 2

special relationship of man and woman to God

The fundamental unit of concern to evolutionary science that it seeks to explain is new...

species

What is the internal contradiction in Genesis 1?

the days can't be solar days because there are days without a sun, so it must be interpreted in a different way. the moon is called a source of light, but this is not true. It reflects the light from the sun.

What is the conclusion of the Divine Watchmaker argument?

therefore the producer of the world must be much much greater than any human being, have intelligence, and make choices. That is God (no infinite regress of watchmakers making watches)

T/F: Hume thought a problem with the Intelligent Design argument was that we do not have enough experience of worlds to be able to make the argument by analogy.

true

Bishop Paley's moral philosophy was a form of...

utilitarianism

Augustine thought that humans are unique in virtue of their...

will, intellect, and memory