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Aristotle theory of motion
Proofs for God's existence
Proofs for God's existence
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Recommended: Aristotle theory of motion
Aquinas’ first way to prove God’s existence is based on motion. Motion is the key part that makes this argument valid. Motion is here understood in the wide Aristotelian sense of reduction of potency to act. The fact that motion is involved in this proof points to things being in motion in this world. Klubertanz and Holloway say that motion or change, the losing of one perfection and the gaining of another, is a simple, undeniable fact of human experience and knowledge. Motion is everywhere and we causes existence to happen. The first way is formulated as follows: There is motion in the world and this motion is caused by something else that moves. There cannot be an infinite series of movers so there must be a first mover and that first mover is God.
The first step to the solution is understanding what is meant by motion. Klubertnaz and Holloway say that by motion or change we understand a transition from potency to act, the acquiring of any new perfection in any way. This motion or change can take different forms or kinds. There are four kinds: local motion, accidental changes in both qualities and quanitiy, substantial change, and immanent activities of cognition and appetition. The starting point for this motion argument is local motion. The motion only happens in a being as long as it is a being in potency and not in act. Wippel says that in support of this claim, already familiar to us as the principle of motion, Thomas argues that nothing is moved except insofar as it is in potency to that to which it is moved. Aquinas uses motion in a broad sense so as to apply it to any reduction from potency to act.
Motion is established and now the next big fact is that change happens in the world. The big caveat here is that not...
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...be something that moves itself for there cannot be an infinite chain of motions. Aquinas calls this unmoved mover God. This proof is deals with act and potency and the important part is that a thing cannot be moved from act to potency except by something that is already in act. There are objections that have surfaced to the first proof. The main objections deal with the meaning of the words used in the argument, Newton’s first law of motion, and a mathematical infinite and how that is related to the unmoved mover. These objections help to make the argument more available for people since, when answered correctly, they help to prove that the argument is valid and can be used with physics and mathematics language. The proof ends with Aquinas realizing that his unmoved mover is God and this establishes that fact that the argument is indeed a proof of God’s existence.
Examining the two works against each other as if it were a debate makes it a bit clearer to compare. Aquinas, reveals his argument under the groundwork that there are essentially two methods of understanding the truth. One being that it can be surmised through reason an logic, and the other being via inner faith. On the surface at this point it could be argued that this ontological determination a bit less convoluted than Anselm, yet I tend to think it could be a bit more confusing. This is what leads him to the claim that the existence of God can be proven by reason alone or “a priori”. Stemming from this belief he formulated his Five Proofs or what he called the “Quinquae Viae”. The first of which is fairly simple based on the fact that something in motion had to have been moved. Agreeing that something set it in motion therefor there must have been a...
Anselm’s argument can be summarized as, “1. God does not exist. (assumption) 2. By “God,” I mean that, than which no greater can be conceived (NGC). 3. So NGC does not exist. (from 1 and 2) 4. So NGC has being only in my understanding, not also in reality. (from 2 and 3) 5. If NGC were to exist in reality, as well as in my understanding, it would be greater. (from the meaning of “greater”) 6. But then, NGC is not NGC. (from 4 and 5) 7. So, NGC cannot exist only in my understanding. (from 6) 8. So NGC must exist also in reality. (from 5 and 7) 9. So God exists. (from 2 and 8) 10. So God does not exist and God exists. (from 1 to 9) 11. So Premise 1 cannot be true. (by 1 through 10 and the principle of reduction ad absurdum) 12. So God exists. (from 11)” (262). This quote demonstrates how Anselms ontological proof is “God is that, than which no greater can be conceived” in understanding and reality by stating that a contradiction would be made if God didn’t exist in both (262). Aquinas cosmological proof stated that the existence of God could be confirmed in five ways, The Argument- “from Change”, “Efficient Causality”,
In the first part, Aquinas states that the existence of god is not self-evident, meaning that reason alone without appealing to faith can give a good set of reasons to believe. To support this claim, Aquinas refers to “The Argument of Motion”, proposing that:
To begin with, in order to find Aquinas’ second proof to be a sound argument one must explain the chain of cause and effects that help explain the efficient cause, which is God. There are always things that cause other things. Every effect has a cause, if an effect did not have a cause it would not have been able to exist. Everything could not have come to exist from nothing there has to be a first maker that makes the first being to come to be. God becomes the first efficient cause which starts the chain of cause and effect in which every other thing that is not God depends on Him. Everything that exists from this chain of cause and effect come to be because t...
Aquinas’ argument has a couple of flaws in it. One is pointed out by Samuel Clarke, who says a whole series of dependant...
First, Descartes contends that God’s perfection implies his immutability because a modification of his action would deny the perfection of the creation. Accordingly, Descartes says: ‘Thus, God imparted various motions to the parts of matter when he first created them, and he now preserves all this matter in the same way, and by the same process by which he originally created it’ (AT IXB, 62). The conservation of the initial conditions of the universe is possible because of God’s continual action on the universe. Finally, Descartes concludes this argument explaining that it is reasonable to think that God preserves the same quantity of motion in matter. Under these considerations, we can say that Descartes founds his physics on his metaphysical conception of God’s immutability, and it makes possible to universalize the laws of
...nection with Descartes’ physics, God is the first cause of motion, and the sustainer of motion in the world. Furthermore, because of the way he sustains motion, God constitutes the ground of the laws of motion. Finally, Descartes held that God is the creator of the so-called eternal truths. In a series of letters in 1630, Descartes enunciated the view that ‘the mathematical truths which you call eternal have been laid down by God and depend on Him entirely no less than the rest of His creatures’ (letter to Mersenne, 15 April 1630; Descartes 1984–91 vol 3: 23), a view that Descartes seems to have held into his mature years. While it never again gets the prominence it had in 1630, it is clearly present both in correspondence (for example, letter to Arnauld, 29 July 1648; Descartes 1984–91 vol 3: 358–9) and in published writings (for example, in the Sixth Responses ).
Elizabeth writes a letter to Descartes asking him to explain to her the relationship “there is between the soul, which is immaterial, and the body, which is material” (Margaret A.: p16). She seeks this clarification particularly on the aspect of how the soul influences the body movements. This question comes following a claim that Descartes had made “regarding the body and the soul” (Gordon B. and Katherine J.: p17 -19). He intimated that the body and the soul exist as single entities and that each has autonomous function. This is found in the philosophy of the dualism.
Descartes second argument for proving God’s existence is very straightforward. He has four possibilities that created his existence. Through process of elimination he is left with God being his creator.
While I do agree with some of Aquinas’ claims. Such as the idea that nothing comes from nothing. I believe something has to happen to become. It could be the efficient cause, causing the world to start. Although still having the question what made such a cause to effect everything in the
He continues by saying that for any change to occur there must have been a previous cause that existed in reality and if one was to trace this line of causes and effects all the way back there must be a first cause that began the chain. But there cannot be anything worldly like that because anything natural must have an impetus already in reality to transform it from potentiality to reality. The only explanation, in Aquinas' e... ... middle of paper ... ... s a cause except God.
Aquinas stated that “Whatever is put in motion, is put in motion by another”, by this he is saying that nothing can be both mover and moved. So nothing can move by itself, it is easily to prove this by using an example in the world. For example you could talk about the line of humans, they depend on other factors to move. However you could state that humans move by themselves because they can move at their own free will, but that ...
The first way St. Thomas argues for the existence of God is with the Argument from Motion.
It is my view that God exists, and I think that Aquinas’ first two ways presents a
Thomas Aquinas uses five proofs to argue for God’s existence. A few follow the same basic logic: without a cause, there can be no effect. He calls the cause God and believes the effect is the world’s existence. The last two discuss what necessarily exists in the world, which we do not already know. These things he also calls God.