Blackwell Reference Online

Extract

Within philosophy of religion, a cosmological argument is understood to be an argument from the existence of the world to the existence of God. Typically, such arguments proceed in two steps. The first step argues from the existence of the world to the existence of a first cause or necessary being that accounts for the existence of the world. The second step argues that such a first cause or necessary being has, or would very likely have, the properties associated with the idea of God. Cosmological arguments appeared in Plato and Aristotle, played a prominent role in Jewish, Christian, and Islamic thought during the medieval period, and were forcefully presented in the eighteenth century by the German philosopher Leibniz and the English theologian Samuel Clarke. In the modern period these arguments, particularly as presented by Aquinas, Leibniz, and Clarke, have been severely criticized by Hume, Kant, and others. Since the second half of the twentieth century, however, there has been a revival of interest in cosmological arguments, and several challenges to the major criticisms of these arguments have appeared. Cosmological arguments may be divided into two broad types: those that depend on a premise denying an infinite regress of causes and those that do not depend on such a premise. Among the former are contained the first “three ways” presented by Aquinas, as well as an interesting ... log in or subscribe to read full text