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THE COSMOLOGICAL ARGUMENT - AQUINAS' THREE WAYS - Coggle Diagram
THE COSMOLOGICAL ARGUMENT - AQUINAS' THREE WAYS
A01
Summa Theologica
WAY 1 = ARGUMENT FROM
MOTION AND CHANGE
All things are a state of change
Everything is a secondary mover
There must therefore be a 'Prime Mover'
If all things are a secondary mover then there must be an infinate regress
WAY 3 =
CONTINGENCY AND NECESSITY
Based on observation + inductive
If everything was contingent, then at some time there was nothing
No contingent being is ever lasting
'out of nothing' nothing can come
If there was a time when nothing existed, then nothing would exist now
WAY 2 = HIS ARGUMENT FROM
CAUSATION
There is an order of efficient causes
If the point above is true then there can be n subsequent cause
No efficiant cause can cause itself
Infinite regress = impossbile - never comes to an end
So, there must be a fist cause for everything, which is God
HUME AND RUSSELL STATE THAT THE WORDS 'NECESSARY BEING' ARE MEANINGLESS
Rejects way 3 - Hume thinks that Aquinas 'necessary being' is the same claim as 'god exists' in the ontological argument
AQUINAS RESPONDS TO HUME AND RUSSEL
He refers to the idea that a necessary being has 'metaphysical' necessity, not logical necessity
Aquinas means that God is transcendent and contingent things need a necessary being (God)
Aquinas argues that unless there is one being who contains within itself the reason for it's own existence then the existence of anything is unable to be explained
Could be a group of necessary beings instead of just 1.