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Locke vs aristotle
Compare and contrast aristotle and john locke
Compare and contrast aristotle and john locke
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William Paley was a well known theologian in the 19th century responsible for surmising the existence of “an intelligent creator by design.” His argument, built up to and stated on page 29, Chapter III, paragraph 1 in sentence 1 is as follows: “for every indication of contrivance, every manifestation of design, which existed in the watch, exists in the works of nature”. Before diving into the meaning behind this, there are terms to be defined. By contrivance, Paley means artificiality, or to have been made. A watch, as easy as it is to grasp, is simply the mechanism on your wrist that tells you the time of day.
Carr believes technology is slowly taking over human minds. He postulates that we “inevitably begin to take on the qualities of those technologies” the more we rely on them. Carr echoes Lewis Mumford, author of “Technics and Civilization,” about how the invention of the clock “disassociated time from human events and helped create the belief in an independent world of mathematically measurable sequences” (Carr 320). However, he believes the invention of the clock helped to create men with scientific mind but also took away our sense of reason and judgment in “deciding when to eat, to work, to sleep, to rise,” and ultimately “we [stop] listening to our sense and [start] obeying the clock” (Carr 320). On the other hand, Thompson disagrees with Carr.
Paley reiterated about the static concept of creation but remains alert to its activity. He explains that the observer of the designs and structure of nature sees the energy, action and movement that define the creation. He manages to explain this concept by direct annotation of the concept of control analogy of a watch. The watch tends to show evidence of design; when it is actively and efficiently working, it shows more evidence of the assumed ideology. Simply, Paley points to the mere activity of the whole natural world as pure evidence of God’s divine power, supplementing that which is already seen as evidence of God’s contrivance (Mcgrath
As being a theist, I find Aquinas 's fifth argument significant because the universe is in a perfect order: the cycles of life and death, the seasons of the year, and the mysteries of the human body can 't be just simply explained by science. This order and balance is not unplanned or random. The world and everything in it has been created with a perfect plan by all knowing and all powerful "God". Despite of Aquinas 's fifth argument being one of the most prominent argument for the existence of God, there are some limitations to the fifth argument. The expected limitations especially from the atheists can be applied to this argument due to its nature in the fact that it’s inductive, meaning we can never be 100% certain of its correctness.
William Paley wrote in natural theology reason to prove that God exists and repercussions that has for non believers and believers alike. Throughout his proof Paley compares God to a watchmaker and uses that to explain his reasoning. He starts out saying that although God can never be seen or known for sure humans cannot have created themselves. Paley goes on to say that it wouldn't disprove his existence if he didn't do things perfectly right or always right all the time. Next he says that because God is a higher being he cannot be discovered or if he can we haven't been able to discover him yet.
The objection addressed the validity of the argument which had the premise 1, nothing is the efficient cause of itself except God and premise 2, a chain of causes cannot be infinite. The argument thus concludes there must be a first cause. This conclusion agrees with my thesis that Saint Thomas Aquinas’s argument formulated in the second way leads to a valid argument, which concludes that there must be a first cause and that God
Thomas Aquinas is a prominent philosopher figure during the Middle Ages due to his ideas being adopted by the Church. Unlike famous figures such as Augustine, Thomas Aquinas demonstrates the possibility for faith and reason to be interconnected without necessarily being combined. At the time, there were two opposing groups; those who believe in God out of faith or those who recognize a divide between religion and philosophy. Thomas Aquinas however provides another viewpoint: faith and reason working together to achieve a better understanding of God. In other words, he argues it is possible to prove God’s existence with facts rather than blindly believing in God’s existence due to faith.
Aquinas does make a difference between two kinds of argumentation: one is to argue that there are enough rational grounds for the proof of theory and another that presupposes a theory and merely demonstrates that the given evidences support the theory . [add more] Swinburne through his inductive method aims to establish the existence of a simplest being. One could argue that, given our epistemic limits, these arguments cannot but be inductive. These inductive arguments are based on the inductive principles of reason such as simplicity and sufficient reason. Swinburne offers the most promising (even though far from satisfactory and need to be modified further) of the concept of a triune God: deductive argument from theism to trinitarian
and Aquinas both identify a 'higher law.' In "Letter from a Birmingham Jail," King refers to this higher law as "moral law" or the "law of God." Similarly, Aquinas uses the terms "natural law" and "eternal law." This 'higher law' takes precedence over human law. 'Higher law,' according to both King and Aquinas, comes from God and gives the universe its rational and moral order.
Paley argues for the existence of God by using an argument through analogy, comparing the universe to a watch. He says that
In this essay, I will set out to prove that Thomas Aquinas’ First Cause Argument does not show that God exists and the conclusion that God exists does not follow from the premises of the first cause argument. I do think that the conclusion is valid and could be sound/or has the potential to be, but the premises fail to provide the basis upon which to reach such a conclusion. Hence, I will be raising some objections to the premises and will try to disprove any counter-arguments that could be raised in its defense. This would be done by examining Aquinas’ First Cause Argument and trying to disprove it whilst countering arguments in its defense.
He did not believe that God revealed himself through supernatural means. Paine says that he did not see the angel himself, therefore he had a right to not to believe. Paine argued that there was a God, but he could only be known through human reason, and he argued that science is the study of the works of God. Paine
Aquinas is seen as one of the greatest minds in church history, and even secular philosophers consider Aquinas to be “rare philosophical genius.” What was it that drew this philosophical and theological
In chapter three of Aquinas for Armchair Theologians by Timothy Renick, Aquinas’s philosophy on evil in the world and the free will of humans is heavily discussed. Renick describes a very complex topic and transforms it into something the average person can read and understand. Aquinas answers the questions of whether evil exists, did God create evil, why does evil exist, and if evil exists, who or what removes it. He also answers the questions of whether humans have the free will to make decisions or has God predetermined every decision and its outcome according to his plan. While I found this article somewhat easy to follow, I can understand how some of Aquinas’s arguments can lead to debate or confusion on the nature of God, evil, and free will.
Aquinas believed that reason and faith could not conflict because both lead to the same ultimate reality,
