dialogues concerning natural religion part 2 summary

Course Hero, Inc. As a reminder, you may only use Course Hero content for your own personal use and may not copy, distribute, or otherwise exploit it for any other purpose. At this point, it seems that Philo has shown that the argument from design is manifestly invalid. Hume presents three characters, each of whom represent a different position on this issue, engaged in a dialogue together. It is therefore almost random to choose the analogy between the universe and a machine. Philo and Cleanthes proceed to argue about whether there is enough resemblance between objects humans create and objects in nature to conclude that natural objects must have a designer and creator like human-made objects do. The main idea behind teleological arguments is that various objects and systems in the universe have precise functions and purposes as if they were intentionally designed to complete specific tasks. "Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion Study Guide." First, the analogy between the universe and a machine is weak, for he claims that the world does not really resemble a machine all that well. December 6, 2019. The only real point of disagreement, he continues, is how strong this resemblance really is; what separates the atheist from the theist is only a question over the degree of analogy between man and God. Cleanthes disagrees with Demea and Philo. Demea despairs that Philo and Cleanthes seem to be treating the existence of God as if it were not a clear and indisputable fact. Second, the universe and a machine are not strictly analogous phenomena because they are not independently existing entities, rather the universe is a whole and a machine is a part of it. Because Hume is an empiricist (i.e. God, must be similar to a human designer, only much more perfect, in proportion with the greater perfection of his art. No proofs a priori!" He believes, in fact, that we cannot ever know the nature of God at all because God's nature is inherently beyond the capacity of human comprehension. On the other hand, intelligent design arguments claim that the successful characteristics of living creatures appear all at once, because of the handiwork of an intelligent creator. The Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion Community Note includes chapter-by-chapter summary and analysis, character list, theme list, historical context, author biography and quizzes written by community members like you. In this way, natural objects, such as plants and planets, resemble human-made objects, such as, skyscrapers and submarines. Second, the analogy between the universe and a machine does not necessarily work because it is not an analogy between two separately existing entities, but between the universe as a whole and certain parts of the universe (i.e. Most relevantly, we know that wherever there is a machine, there is some intelligent designer behind it. Course Hero, "Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion Study Guide," December 6, 2019, accessed November 26, 2020, https://www.coursehero.com/lit/Dialogues-Concerning-Natural-Religion/. Demea disapproves of Cleanthes's arguments, complaining that it is inappropriate to say that God resembles humans. "This, I hope," Demea says, is not by any means a question among us." Philo also argues that it is not true that all order we experience is caused by intelligence that we can sense. A dandelion seed moves across the land by taking advantage of the wind to spread dandelions across the land. The argument from design seems to be an argument by analogy, but it does not work even under this rubric. Course Hero. . Philo does not mind that the argument is a posteriori; his only complaint is that it is a bad argument. He quotes Nicolas Malebranche, who argued that there is nothing that should be said about God other than that God exists and is perfect. He argues that the claim that God is an intelligent designer does not even succeed in explaining why the world is ordered. man and the objects he manipulates). If it would not be selected for, then it would not exist to eventually become the functional and adaptive feature protozoa actually have. Philo agrees that God's existence is beyond doubt and he also agrees that God's nature cannot be known. He asserts that the first question is beyond doubt; the latter is initially undecided. Use up and down arrows to review and enter to select. Cleanthes argues the position of empirical theism—the position that we can come to know about God by reasoning from the evidence afforded us by nature—against these two opponents. Through dialogue, three philosophers named Demea, Philo, and Cleanthes debate the nature of God's existence. This small protrusion from a cell is used for the purposes of movement by protozoa. It is wholly obvious, he declares, that the ordered world has some intelligence behind it and that this intelligence bears some resemblance to the human mind. He does not approve of the claim that God and man are at all similar. In either case we have to ask how and why this happens. Learn exactly what happened in this chapter, scene, or section of Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion and what it means. SparkNotes is brought to you by Barnes & Noble. Finally, he ends by espousing a fideist position that would have made Demea proud if he had not already exited in a huff at the end of the previous chapter: philosophical skepticism, Philo tells Cleanthes, is the only proper route to true Christianity, it forces us to turn toward revelation by undermining our faith in reason. The success of scientific methods of inquiry, starting during the Enlightenment, provided significant ammunition for arguments that nature must have an intelligent designer. The type of argument Cleanthes puts forward for the existence of God is referred to as a teleological argument. 26 Nov. 2020. Because it has no evolutionary function, it would not be selected for in a natural selection process. In part II he attempts to demonstrate that the argument from design is not even an actual instance of the sort of argument it purports to be, and as such is faulty. Third, it seems to be false to claim that all order in the world is the result of intelligence. The historical figures who put forward arguments exactly like Cleanthes included English naturalist John Ray, English scholar and clergyman Richard Bentley, and English theologian William Derham. A summary of Part X (Section4) in David Hume's Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion. someone who thinks that all knowledge comes through experience), he thinks that a belief is rational only … Though we have never experienced God, we have experienced machines and we know a thing or two about them. Because the sailboat and the dandelion seed are similar in their effects, proponents of the simple analogy argument would reason that dandelions and sailboats must be similar in their causes. It is no easier to understand how God's thoughts might set the world in order than it is to understand how the material world might be its own source of order. Second, he is unhappy that Cleanthes is trying to use an a posteriori proof rather than a priori for God's existence (since the argument by design proves both God's nature and his being).

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