...GE217 Composition II Week 2 (B) Identifying logical Fallacies 1. Bandwagon Appeal: “Cash for Clunkers”; The New York Times, September 30, 2012 The argument on this article is about how the people think that something should to be done because the majority does it. The "Cash for Clunkers" program has been a success. By subsidizing the purchases of new, more fuel efficient vehicles for Americans willing to trade in their old gas guzzlers, this initiative makes a short-term investment in our long-term goals of environmental protection and decreasing our dependence on fossil fuels. 2. Ad Hominem: The education for women; Richard Norquist; This is an article from the year 1917 were women are not suppose to know everything like men, he’s argument and appeal that women should have the right to go be equal to men in terms of education. 3. Begging the question: “Murder is morally wrong, Therefore, abortion is morally wrong”;Hurley P. ; About.com The argument presumes the truth of a premise that isn’t stated, namely that abortion is murder. As this premise is far from obvious, and the arguer doesn’t even mention it (much less give it a defense), the argument begs the question. 4. Red Herring: Consequences of using Nuclear Power; Dean Babst and David Krieger; 1997 Here the arguer does nothing to address the issue of the dangers of nuclear power, but instead changes the subject to the danger of electricity. If there’s even an argument at all here, it certainly has nothing to...
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...Hume criticism of the teleological argument questions the strength of Paley’s watchmaker analogy (although it must be noted that Hume’s criticism came 23 years before Paley made his argument) by debating whether the universe and watches are actually alike. If the universe and watches were alike, then it would be supposed that the universe has a designers because as Hume says ‘like effects presuppose like causes.’ For instance, if I saw two chocolate Mars bars I would be able to assume that they had the same cause, i.e. the same starting ingredients. However, Hume rejected Paley’s use of analogy as the watch and the universe are not similar. This is because the watch is mechanical while the universe is organic. We can assume a house has an architect and a builder because a house is unnatural and cannot be produced by nature. The universe on the other hand is natural however (unlike the watch used in Paley’s analogy), so the universe and the watch are not ‘like effects’, with Hume saying the analogy would work just as well between the watch and a giant vegetable. Evidently, it would not be plausible to conclude that the vegetable was designed. People have seen watches being made, so it cannot be debated whether they are designed, but no one has seen a universe being constructed neither is it as evident of design as the watch. Because of this Paley’s is flawed and cannot infer a designer. Although the world appears designed, this does not mean that the best explanation for this...
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...not. The great controversy has led to my personal belief that God exists through the teleological, ontological and cosmological arguments. These major ideas help to back up my statement that God exists. Based on our everyday experiences, just about everything seems to have a beginning. William Paley was a philosopher during the eighteenth century who is best known for his exposition of the teleological argument for the existence of God. Derived from the Greek word "telos" which means "design or purpose", the teleological argument proposes that God must exist because the inner workings of the universe are too complicated and precise to just have come about on it's own. Through often confused with the argument from simple analogy, the watchmaker argument from Paley is a more sophisticated design argument that attempts to avoid...
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...William Paley uses the analogy of finding a watch vs. finding a stone in nature, and the complexities of the watch that are not similarly found in something like a stone, to prove that we, as complex beings that can reproduce, must also have a supreme designer the same way a complex watch has a designer. Paley goes through some of the parts of a watch and explains each specific purpose they serve in the mechanism and the great deal of care each piece was placed with. Given the complexities of the watch, it is clear that the watch in question must have had a creator, a designer who made everything as it was for a reason. Even though we may not know a watchmaker personally, or have not seen a watch being made, ancient art being created, etc. we understand that there was someone who created these things at some point in time and these creations served a specific purpose. It is absurd to think that something with a design did not have a designer. Paley then asks us to consider the possibility that the watch in question contained a specific set of parts that would allow it to create another watch like itself. If someone found this watch and then later discovered it could reproduce, the person who found the watch would no doubt see it in a new light and see this as a new reason to believe that a designer put a great deal of thought into this creation. He also uses an analogy of water powered corn grinder to show that although water is unintelligent, the manner in which it is used in...
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...Design Arguments St. Thomas Aquinas was an important theologian and philosopher whose work on the nature and existence of God and his arguments for a moral code based on the ‘natural law’ God has instilled in the universe have formed the central teachings of the Roman Catholic Church. He sought to bring faith and reason together in order to develop the place of theology in the world. The argument from design finds its origins in Aquinas’ Summa Theologica and is the fifth of his five ways of proving the existence of God. Aquinas’ argument can be explained as follows: “The fifth way is taken from the governance of the world. We see that things which lack knowledge, such as natural bodies, act for an end, and this is evident from their acting always, or nearly always, in the same way, so as to obtain the best result. Hence it is plain that they achieve their end, not fortuitously, but designedly. Now whatever lacks knowledge cannot move towards an end, unless it be directed by some being endowed with knowledge and intelligence; as the arrow is directed by the archer. Therefore some intelligent being exists by whom all natural things are directed to their end; and this being we call God.” Aquinas argued from design qua regularity. He saw the overall order in the world as proof of a designer: ‘this being we call God.’ Aquinas stated that everything works together to achieve order, despite the fact that inanimate objects have no mind or rational powers to achieve...
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...the arrow. God is controlling the world and as he is the reason behind why it is been created. Aquinas then goes on to say the world works because the designer is God, and so things in nature are ordered for their apparent purpose e.g. trees give us oxygen. However, this is a weak argument because Aquinas is not comparing two similar ideas. William Paley also argues for the design argument. His argument includes several ideas, one of which uses an analogy of a watch and comparing it to the universe. The analogy explains that if a person found a watch, they would know it had been designed for a purpose (to tell the time) and with the necessary regularity (the mechanisms inside). Therefore, just as the existence of a watch indicates a watchmaker, the existence of the universe indicates a designer. The foundation of the argument is that everything that has been...
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...Explain Paley’s Teleological argument (25) According to the argument from design, or teleological argument, the design or order found in the universe provides evidence for the existence of an intelligent designer (or orderer) usually identified as God. A classic version of this argument appears in William Paley's 1802 Natural Theology, where Paley compares the complexity of living things to the inferior complexity of a watch that we deduce to be designed by an intelligent being. Just as a watch could not exist without a watchmaker, Paley argued, living things could not exist without an intelligent designer. The teleological or design argument is a derivative of the Greek word Telos which means end, goal or purpose. It is this end or purpose that Paley is looking for that suggests the existence of a divine creator. Aquinas’ fifth way ‘From the governance of things’ or design qua regularity argument (qua meaning through or pertaining to) foregrounding the argument for design, observed the universe and saw that everything in the universe appeared to be working in some sort of order. In particular he noticed that ‘natural bodies’ behaved in a regular way. Here Aquinas addresses flowers or insects - One could use the example of a daffodil that flowers in spring time. He then goes on to evaluate the fact that these natural bodies ‘lack intelligence’ - they are not conscious or sentient beings of their own movement, yet even so they appear to move or act in regular fashion - as...
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...The teleological argument Teleological arguments are often divided into types by philosophers; 1. Arguments based on purpose 2. Arguments based on regularity Thomas Aquinas 1. When you look at the natural world, you can see that everything in it follows natural laws, even if the things are not conscious, thinking being. 2. If things follow natural laws they tend to do well and have some goal or purpose. 3. However, if a thing cannot think for itself it does not have any goal or purpose unless it is directed by something that thinks: take an arrow as an example. It can only be directed to its goal and used for its purpose by someone, such as an archer. 4. Conclusion: everything in the natural world that does not think for itself heads towards its goal or purpose because it is directed by something which does think. That something we call ‘God’. William Paley Part 1. 1. Paley suggests that if you went for a walk and found a rock, you could conclude that it had been there forever and not think any more about it. Whereas if you found a watch (an old fashioned watch with cogs and springs) you could examine it and find that it had moving parts which demonstrate that: (a) The watch was for a purpose: telling the time (b) The parts work together or are fit for a purpose (c) The parts were ordered and put together in a certain way to make the watch function (d) If the parts are arranged in a different way the watch does not work, i.e. it does not fulfil...
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...Aquinas considered to be God. Another philosopher that postulated a teleological argument is Paley. Paley put forward his argument for the existence of God during the period of enlightenment (where science was being used to prove evolution). Paley explained his theory using an analogy of the watch, but drawing comparisons between features of the watch and of the universe. He stated that if a man was walking across a heath and he came across a stone he could assume that the stone came about through nature. However, if he were to come across a watch the same could not be suggested. The watch shows order (cogs, etc) and purpose (telling the time) and therefore it's not reasonable to assume that the watch came about without the agency of a watchmaker. Paley's analogy compared the watch with the...
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...William Paley’s takes on the design argument in an analogy form which in its most basic form states if a watch is complex then it must have a maker if we compare to a human eye which is more complex then it proves that an intelligent creator thus exist. His argument is logically persuasive thought Natural theology. As for David Hume’s, “Dialogues concerning Natural Religion,” contra argument he finds various flaws in Paley’s argument.(need to explain) What I established after reading these two arguments is that it is difficult to come to a conclusion about the existence of god. Paley’s and Hume’s arguments are both inductive arguments discussing the existence of an intelligent creator, god, a topic that can never be proven to be true and absolute. I believe that the decision one should make is based on . . . . A point Paely brings up in (point 1) in natural theology is that just because we do not know who the watch maker is we cannot infer that there is no designer behind the creation. The argument Paely brings up is valid because we cannot see an item with complexity and infer that it just is like the example he gives with the rock. If we analyze the basic statement of his argument we find it to be logical. A watch, a complex object, takes time planning and intelligence to create; we cannot expect for a watch to be created on its own by a series of random events. If we think about how a watch works, it has many parts and they need to work simultaneously together. As for the...
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...Give an account of the fundamental ideas of the design argument for the existence of God. (25 marks) The design argument outlines that the world has been designed, and therefore requires a designer. This designer, has to have been God because he is the only being that has the power and will to do so. This argument is a posteriori because it bases it’s argument on observations within the Universe. It is also an inductive proof because it has more than one possible conclusion. There are a few ideas that support the idea of the world being designed, one of them being Aquinas’s Fifth Way. This idea says that irrational beings are able to work towards a “beneficial order” (an order where the being will eventually work towards a beneficial purpose). Aquinas observed that these irrational beings could work towards this order without having the required intelligence to do so. For example, grey whales annually migrate from the Alaskan Coast to Mexican waters, a journey which stretches further than 20,000 km and lasts 3 months to carry out, in order to reach a beneficial end or purpose. Aquinas concluded that there must have been a higher power that directed them towards this beneficial order, and Aquinas maintained that this was God. He said God must have designed these irrational beings so that they could work towards this beneficial end. Another idea of the design argument is William Paley’s watch analogy. Paley said that if you were to come across a watch in a field, it would...
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...The complexity design argument given by William Paley reasons that the existence of God is evident in the complexity of the natural world. He argues that random events cannot account for the development of life and the systems that comprise our world. Observation of the natural world indicates purposeful design not random events. Purposeful design requires the existence of God. He argues this through the use of analogies and sensibilities; through the comparison of man’s inventions to the functions and purposes of life. The clock makers’ analogy is one such argument. The clockmakers analogy imagines that you are taking a walk through the woods. You stumble upon a clock. Immediately you wonder, “where did this clock come from?” You might consider that it naturally grew there just as the nearby trees and plants did; but more likely you would assume that someone had left it. Because of its form and function, you would reason that the clock was not a product of the natural world; it is the product of an intentional design. How could you know this as fact, especially if there was no evidence, other than the clock itself, that there was or had ever been a person in that part of the woods? After all, it is possible, though highly improbable, that the elements of which the clock is composed could have randomly arranged themselves into the order represented in the clock. Through observation and experience, one would conclude that the clock is there because a person left it there...
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...4a. Explain Paley's argument for the existence of God (25) William Paley's argument for the existence of God is an important aspect of the Design argument, which argues that the universe is being directed towards an end purpose due to the a posteriori (subject to experience) evidence of an intelligent designer, who is God. This is because it is perhaps arguably the most famous version, and the theory which modern-day theories for the Design argument are built upon. The first version of the Design argument came from Plato, a Greek philosopher, who developed it to address the universe's apparent order. Plato proposed in his book Timaeus that a “demiurge”, a divine being of supreme wisdom and intelligence, was the creator of the cosmos. In Roman times, this was built upon by Cicero, a Roman jurist, who put forward an early version of what Paley would use for his design argument. In his book On the Nature of Gods, he put forward an analogy of a sundial being designed to tell the time, and that this could be attributed to nature, so therefore like something must of made the sundial, something must of made nature, and this something is an artificer, or God. These key ideas were later developed in the Dominican priest St.Thomas Aquinas' Five ways in his work the Summa Theologica. Each of his ways were in essence proving the existence of God, but the 5th way in particular, which states that common sense tells us the universe acts in such a way so therefore we conclude an intelligent...
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...The teleological argument is one of the five arguments for the existence of god. It attempts to prove gods existence by using our experience of the world or universe around us. This makes it a posterior in nature. Teleological arguments can essentially be broken down into two main types pre Darwinian and post Darwinian. We shall focus on pre Darwinian as these are the most traditional of these two arguments. Further sub division of teleological arguments can be identified in the guise of design qua regularity and design qua purpose. It is within these areas that we the find the thinking of two philosophers Aquinas(13thC) and paley (19C). The teleological design argument gets its name from the Greek word telos which mean end, goal or purpose it is this end or purpose that both Aquinas and paley are looking for that will suggest the existence of a divine creator. We will begin by outlining Aquinas fifth way from the governance of things or the design qua regularity argument. Aquinas observed the universe and concluded that everything in it must be working in some kind of order. In particular he noticed that natural bodies (flowers or insects) behaved in a regular way. For example a daffodil flowers every spring time he then goes on to notice the fact that these natural bodies lack intelligence, by this he means they are not conscious of there own movement. A daffodil does not know that it is spring time but flowers unconsciously. He concludes that as they lack the intelligence...
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...Explain Hume’s criticisms of the teleological argument. (25) St. Thomas Aquinas’s teleological argument seeks to prove, a posteriori, the existence of an intelligent God by arguing that the world is full of inanimate, non-intelligent natural bodies which function in order, in an intelligent way. He said that for inanimate bodies to do this, they require an intelligent being to bring this action about. This being is God. The 18th-century philosopher David Hume wrote a book named Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion in which he criticised Aquinas’s teleological argument, and several other teleological arguments. Firstly, Hume says that the apparent intelligent functioning of many unintelligent bodies – e.g., the complex systems by which plants take up minerals from the soil to cause water uptake into their roots – can be explained by the ideas of natural selection and survival of the fittest, by which the organisms that happen by chance mutations to be most well-adapted to their environments are the ones which survive to reproduce, making their functions appear to be ordered specifically for their environments and therefore seeming designed. Therefore, apparent design may well not be in fact design. Hume uses this idea to criticise the major premise of Aquinas’s teleological argument. Hume also asserts that the world does not necessarily point to an intelligent designer. He uses the apparent cruelty often observed in nature – said to be “red in tooth and claw” – to argue...
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