Discussions of the Cosmological, Ontological and Teleological Arguments and Criticisms on the Existence of God by Descartes, Kant and Hume
Number of pages:
9
ABSTRACT:
This is a 9 page paper discussing the cosmological, ontological and teleological arguments and criticisms in regards to the existence of God by Descartes, Kant and Hume. Rene Descartes, Immanuel Kant and David Hume among many others have arguments in regards to the existence of God. Descartes offered cosmological and ontological arguments for the existence of God. Descartes’ cosmological argument is causal in its format as it is based on the premise that the idea of infinite perfection could only originate from the real existence of an infinite being. From an ontological perspective, Descartes offers a more simple presupposition in that whatever he clearly can perceive is true and if he can perceive the idea of God, then God exists. Kant argues primarily against the use of presuppositions in Descartes arguments as he notes that “existence is not a property or predicate” but merely a “positing of a thing”. Hume, on the other hand criticizes the arguments on the basis that “matter of fact” can only be based on experience. In addition, “whatever we conceive as existent, we can also conceive as non-existent”. Hume also argues against the analogies used in the teleological arguments for the existence of God because they too can never settle a factual question and to assume that one can know a cause of an action without experiencing it is a faulty and misleading assumption as events or actions can be caused by multiple purposes and no one cause can be assumed.
Bibliography lists 7 sources.
FILE NAME:
File: D0_TJcosmo1.rtf
Send Me This Paper
Back to Papers