Essay The Teleological Argument

During the 1800th century, William Paley, an English philosopher of religion and ethics, wrote the essay The Argument from Design. In The Argument from Design, Paley tries to prove the existence of a supreme being through the development of a special kind of argument known as the teleological argument. The teleological argument is argument by analogy, an argument based on the similarities between two different subjects. This essay purposefully attempts to break down Paley’s argument and does so in the following manner: firstly, Paley’s basis for the teleological argument is introduced; secondly, Paley’s argument is derived and analyzed; thirdly, the connection between Paley’s argument and the existence of a supreme being is made; and

Paley’s made his argument using an analogy to prove the existence of god, using a watchmaker analogy and to image if we found a watch on the ground and could it have been possible for the watch to simply appear randomly, spontaneously on its own. Paley was arguing that the teleology demonstrated by a watch would conclude that it was designed by an intelligent creator with a particular end in mind. While Aquinas has a design argument of his own ,the Teleological argument focuses on the condition that allows for life in the universe to only occur when certain fundamental physical constants are within a very narrow range if one of many fundamental constant are off slightly, then the universe would be unfit for the development of matter and life. Since these things are so finely tuned it appears an intelligent designer may have been involved in making sure these things happened so life could occur that designer Aquinas believes to be

In his discussion of the argument from design, which he links with teleological principles, the author refers to the concept of design in a way that alludes to the conviction that there are certain divine manifestations in the world that are so perfect that they must revolve around a grand architect who conceived them to be that way. Therefore, he says that proving such an argument requires "indisputable examples of design or purpose" (McCloskey, 1968, p. 64). However, this standard of indisputability that McCloskey is holding this argument to,

William Paley found a watch on the ground and assumed that the watch was put together for a purpose. His arguments, then, lead towards the teleological argument, which starts from relatively specific observations to the crucial notion of purpose where there is an intelligent cause to the universe. Paley’s whole argument discusses how there must be a maker of the universe since there is a maker of the watch, which must be God. In contrast, a telescope has a designer, so an eye must also have a designer,

It is obvious that both are not there by chance. Another analogy for this is the eye is designed so well for the purpose of seeing. A designer gave each part of the universe a special purpose. Paley makes the inductive leap to say that this designer is God.

Supporters within the teleological arguement like to use Paley's watch arguement as justifaction for an intellgent design. However, there's a fault in this arguemtent. Paley's view and example of a watch show funtionlaity with all the pieces of the watch falling together from that of a man made object. Paley's view and that of supporters of the teleological argrumnet lack the complex nature of the Earth. A watch is a single mechansim that with careful design works to tell time. The Earth doesn't have these parts, it has adaptation and many more factors at play rather than a designers intent. David Hume's quote comparing the Earth to a plant is much more accurate on the way the world works. The Earth like a plant takes time to grow and it can easily be altered if the contitions are off to nurture the life it contains. There is no functionalty or purpose for Earth only that it exists. If a god created the Earth then they would of created a world that would be stable and perfect order. Instead we have a world that is a mixture of different ecosyetmes and possibilites for both creation and

The Argument from Design In William Paley’s “Argument from Design” he seeks to prove God’s existence by comparing the world and universe we live in to a machine, specifically a watch. The goal of the design argument is to prove the existence of an omniscient, omnipotent, and wholly good God through the watch analogy. The analogy tries to say that if we look at the creation of the universe like that of a watch, we can infer that it has a purpose and a designer. While this seems to be valid, there are some flaws in Paley’s argument that I will point out.

William Paley argues the existence of God by utilizing a watch analogy. Whereas, he observes the watch to create a visual when explaining the complexity of the birth of humanity and Earth. Therefore, in order for the Earth to be so complex in its maturity the creator had to be greater than the Earth. Paley begins his argument by presenting a scenario that if some individual walks upon a stone that is resting on the ground they would cursorily assume that the stone had been there since the beginning of time. Conversely, one could not assume that a watch was just recently placed on the ground. Reason being that the individual is likely to examine the interior areas of the watch. If the watch had any minor deficiencies it would lose its ability

would seem to suggest many gods are involved in universe making” this is an interesting point which does hurt Paley’s analogy because he did believe in a benevolent God and the idea of any Gods helping each other to create the universe or even the possibility of multiple Gods would mean that there was no benevolent God because one could not create the world on its own. This is a very important question because it endangers Paley’s argument and from reading the chapters on the design argument in paley’sI do not believe Paley takes in to account the possibility of more than one God existing and because of this I believe he ignores a serious way to disprove his own

Therefore he claims god is this being. It is rationale to conclude a designer according to Aquinas and his logic. The eighteenth century minister, William Paley similarly claims proof of god in his argument “The Watch and the Watchmaker”. The basis of the argument comes from supposing a watch were found. He wonders if the watch had always been there. He takes note of the detailed movements and the fitting together of the parts and each pieces role in running the watch. Through observation he surmises indeed, the watch obviously had a maker. From this deduction he applies the same principles to nature and logically concludes it is proof of god’s hand, creating and is the mastermind of the universe.

While holding truth to his materialistic thoughts, he also argues that the material objects exist in the external world and subjective things only exist in our mind. He also uses this to prove the existence of God, I believe he is saying all things are subject to God and therefore we only exist in him. God is the only one that cannot be subjected to anything. Because in order for us to exist, we had to be

Here, Philo attempts to show that the occurrence of argument does not signify how it is supposed to be. Machines have objectives and are made by someone intelligent. Thus when the universe is being compared to a machine, it reveals that the universe must have been created by an intellectual creator as well. As the argument of design states the world must have been created with resemblance to human intelligence, Philo’s argument states that the universe was created by God and in addition, it states that the omnipotent perform likewise to human beings. Anthropomorphism explains that God is like a human being but only more perfect.

As for Paley’s theory he believes that nature must have a designer and that the designer is God, he believed we all have a purpose and everything that we do has purpose. Paley says that with our abilities to create artifacts that resemble the universe then there has to be a creator of the universe and everything that is in it. Either nature or some of its parts have design like properties they show evidence of being

Firstly, we shall focus on the Design (or to use its philosophically technical term, the teleological argument). There are numerous variants of the Design argument, however we shall be focusing on Paley’s version (reference 1) of this theory. Paley’s version of the Design argument is based upon the idea that by looking around at certain features of the world (for example an inanimate object like a rock or say a living creature like dolphin or a person like myself) and theorising that they are too complex and intricate to randomly just manifest. They must have been created by a higher, more intelligent power and thus, if this is accepted as being so, then this proves beyond doubt that God exists.

Cleanthes argument is structured with two propositions which lead to a logical conclusion. The first proposition is that things made by us seem to have a specific purpose which suggests a creator. This is followed by the universe appearing to have a purpose so therefore the universe must have a creator. This argument relies heavily on an analogy which is comparing our everyday lives and experiences within the world and universe to the origin of the world and how it was originally created. ’The intricate fitting of means to ends throughout all nature is just like (though more wonderful than) the fitting of means to ends in things that have been produced by us—products of human designs, thought, wisdom, and intelligence. Since the effects resemble each other, we are led to infer by all the rules