Being in direct contact
with a mind
independent reality
Aristotle
Indirect Realism
The Veil of Perception
Primary Qualities
Shape
Size
Movement
Don't change
Pass straight
through the veil
Secondary Qualities
Colour
Smell
Sound
Reflect off of the
veil before being
percieved
Changable
powers
Locke
Being in indirect
contact with a mind
independent reality
Locke
This can lead to
sceptism about the
existence of an
external world
Idealism
The only things
that exist are
minds and ideas
I Think Therefore I Am
Philosophy of Religion
Arguments for the existence of God
Teleological
A posteriori, synthetic and inductive
Paley's Watch Analogy
When walking upon a heath kicking
stones, a man comes across a watch.
He picks it up and admires it. He
claims that this watch is so complex
and intricate, that it must have had
a designer, a watch-maker. He then
thought about the world and in a
similar way he said, the world is so
complex that it too must have a
designer, a world-maker, God.
Against
Evolution
Provides an alternative theory
as to how the world became so
complex.
Ontological
Analytic
Against
Kant
Existence is not a predicate
Guanilo's Island
Anselm
God is that than no greater
can be concieved
Real>Imaginairy
Descartes
God is perfect
Cosmological
Kalam et al
Everything that begins to exist has a cause, the universe began to
exist, therefore something must have caused the universe.
Relies on contingency
Red Shift
Against
Brute fact
What caused God?
Aquinas
Implications of the existence of God
Problem of Evil
1. God is omnibenevolent
2. God is omnipotent
3. There is evil
Therefore God does not exist
Against
Additional premises
1a. A good thing eliminates a bad thing as far as it can
2a. There is no limit to what an omnipotent thing can do
3a. Good is opposed to evil
Therefore a good, omnipotent thing eliminates evil completely
Therefore God does exist
Omniscience
God does not exist
Free Will Defence
The only way to make all good
people, is to deny them free will.
Natural Evil is due to fallen angels.
Against
Mackie
Swinburne
Evil exists for the greater good
Religious Language
Verification
If a statement cannot
be proved analytically
or empirically, then it
is meaningless.
Statement fails under
it's own conditions
Falsification
The Gardener
Two explorers came across a clearing. The first explorer
saw the flowers and trees and said, "there must be a
gardener of this beautiful garden". The second explorer
sees the weeds and disagrees. They wait all day and all
night, they set up electric fences and sniffer dogs. But
the gardener doesn't show up. The first explorers is
constantly adding attributes to his gardener, "He's
invisible, unsmellable and intangible". The second
explorer asks, "How is your invisible, unsmellable,
intangible gardener any different from an imaginairy
one?".
Flew
Cannot be falsified
and so is meaningless
Against
The Partisan
Mitchell
During the time of a war a Partisan meets a
stranger claiming to be the leader of the resistance.
The stranger urges the Partisan to have faith in
him, even if he is seen to be acting against the
Partisan's interests. The Partisan is committed to a
belief in the stranger's integrity, but his friends
think that he is a fool to do so. The original
encounter with the stranger gives the Partisan
sufficient confidence to hold onto his faith in him.