Aristotle
(384-322 BCE) |
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In the beginning, there was Aristotle and his theories of causality. For him, God was merely an Unmoved Mover. Aristotle held that human reason enables us to reach this conclusion through a fairly simple deductive argument.
Later, Thomas Aquinas (1225-1274 CE) formulated his fifth argument for the existence of God. It has come to be called the Argument from Design (or simply, the Design Argument).
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The Design Argument has various forms. Here is a formulation close to Aquinas’:
Premise 1 |
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Among beings that act for an end, some have minds whereas others do not. |
Premise 2 |
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A being that acts for an end, but does not itself have a mind, must have been designed by a being that has a mind. |
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Conclusion |
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Therefore, there exists a being with a mind who designed all mindless beings that act for an end. |
NOTE: This is a deductively valid argument—the conclusion is certain if the premises are true. >>> Inferences
Also note that the transition from premise 2 to the conclusion involves an informal fallacy: If each mindless being that acts for an end has a designer, it does not follow that there is a single designer for all of them—only that there is at least one such designer.
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