Combining Texts

Ideas for 'works', 'The Laws' and 'Enquiry Conc Human Understanding'

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10 ideas

28. God / B. Proving God / 2. Proofs of Reason / b. Ontological Proof critique
It can never be a logical contradiction to assert the non-existence of something thought to exist [Hume]
     Full Idea: Whatever 'is' may 'not be'. No negation of a fact can involve a contradiction. The non-existence of any being, without exception, is as clear and distinct an idea as its existence.
     From: David Hume (Enquiry Conc Human Understanding [1748], XII.III.132)
28. God / B. Proving God / 3. Proofs of Evidence / a. Cosmological Proof
The only possible beginning for the endless motions of reality is something self-generated [Plato]
     Full Idea: When the motion in reality is transmitted to thousands of things one after another, the entire sequence of their movements must surely spring from some initial principle, which can hardly be anything except the change effected by self-generated motion.
     From: Plato (The Laws [c.348 BCE], 895a)
     A reaction: This gives a domino picture of reality, with all of reality responding inertly to a first kick. Much better is to see self-generated motion in the active qualities of all matter, as seen in the sea of virtual subatomic particles at the smallest level.
Self-generating motion is clearly superior to all other kinds of motion [Plato]
     Full Idea: We can't resist the conclusion that the motion which can generate itself is infinitely superior, and all the others are inferior to it.
     From: Plato (The Laws [c.348 BCE], 894d)
     A reaction: Who said you can't get values from facts! Not that the argument depends on superiority. There could be an inferior First Mover, as a bus driver is subservient to the passengers, or (my favourite) a head teacher is inferior to the pupils.
Self-moving soul has to be the oldest thing there is [Plato]
     Full Idea: Soul, being the source of motion, is the most ancient thing there is.
     From: Plato (The Laws [c.348 BCE], 896b)
     A reaction: Plato seems to assume that the First Mover must still exist, which doesn't follow from anything in the argument. The First Pusher could be dead before the last domino falls. Why can't activity be the default state of everything?
28. God / B. Proving God / 3. Proofs of Evidence / b. Teleological Proof
Soul must be the cause of all the opposites, such as good and evil or beauty and ugliness [Plato]
     Full Idea: Soul must be cause of good and evil, beauty and ugliness, justice and injustice, and all the opposites.
     From: Plato (The Laws [c.348 BCE], 896d)
If all the motions of nature reflect calculations of reason, then the best kind of soul must direct it [Plato]
     Full Idea: If the movement of the heavens and all that is in them reflects the motion and revolution and calculation of reason ...then clearly we have to admit that it is the best kind of soul that cares for the entire universe and directs it along the best path.
     From: Plato (The Laws [c.348 BCE], 897c)
     A reaction: Most of this passage reflects the cosmological argument - that without some initiating source natural events could not occur - but this slides into the design argument. So who designed mud (which is too inferior to have a Form)?
28. God / B. Proving God / 3. Proofs of Evidence / c. Teleological Proof critique
You can't infer the cause to be any greater than its effect [Hume]
     Full Idea: If we infer a cause from an effect, we must proportion the one to the other. …a body of ten ounces raised in a scale proves the counterbalance exceeds ten ounces, but not that it exceeds a hundred.
     From: David Hume (Enquiry Conc Human Understanding [1748], XI.105)
28. God / B. Proving God / 3. Proofs of Evidence / e. Miracles
All experience must be against a supposed miracle, or it wouldn't be called 'a miracle' [Hume]
     Full Idea: There must be a uniform experience against every miraculous event, otherwise the event would not merit that appellation.
     From: David Hume (Enquiry Conc Human Understanding [1748], X.I.90)
To establish a miracle the falseness of the evidence must be a greater miracle than the claimed miraculous event [Hume]
     Full Idea: No testimony is sufficient to establish a miracle, unless the testimony be of such a kind that its falsehood would be more miraculous than the fact which it endeavours to establish.
     From: David Hume (Enquiry Conc Human Understanding [1748], X.I.91)
A miracle violates laws which have been established by continuous unchanging experience, so should be ignored [Hume]
     Full Idea: A miracle is a violation of the laws of nature, and as a firm and unalterable experience has established these laws, the proof against a miracle is as entire as any argument from experience can possible be imagined.
     From: David Hume (Enquiry Conc Human Understanding [1748], X.I.90)