Aquinas’ Cosmological Argument

• What is Aquinas' third way?

  Contingency and necessity
• What is observation?


  If we can see something, like a chair, then we know that it is real
• Basis of the argument in observation

  Basis of the argument is the perception that the universe exists. We perceive this through our senses and they suggest that there is a real world causing our experiences. The same is true of our experience of the universe, so it seems right to conclude that the universe or cosmos really exist. This is supported by the observation that all things we experience have a cause so it seems rational to look for the cause of the universe itself.
• What is the third way?

  As we examine everything around us we observe that at one point they were created but will also at some point cease to be
• What are three potential types of time that our universe could use?

  Infinity, linear model with start date, cyclical model
• What is infinity?

  Having no beginning or end (forever)
• What is linear model with start date?

  That the world has a start date but will also end
• What is cyclical model?

  Living for infinity through reincarnation
• Why does Aquinas reject infinity?

  The argument is concerned with cause and effect so it states that the universe has a first cause. Aquinas held that among the things whose existence needs explanation are contingent beings that depend for their existence upon other beings. We cannot keep following a causal chain back and back; our experience tells us that this causal chain must have had a starting point. Therefore there must be a start and end
• What is contingency?


  Things do not contain the reason for their own existence but depend upon external causes. Objects around us exist but could just as easily not exist. Claim that the universe is contingent. Each of the things around us is contingent too.
• What is Reductio Ad Absurdum?

  Reducing someone's argument to the most ridiculous. A method of proving a statement false by showing that the statement leads to an absurd or illogical conclusion. Aquinas uses the argument that everything that we observe is generated and corrupted and then uses the logic of the statement to demonstrate that if that had been the case then nothing could ever exist. How can something ever be generated from nothing?
• What is a necessary being?

  A being who contains the reason for its existence within its own nature. The only explanation of the existence of the contingent universe is that there exists a necessary being on which all existence rests. The necessary being that was neither created nor will ever corrupt is God. The relationship between God and contingent beings is not limited to the start of the universe but is an on going relationship. Without a necessary being there would be no universe or explanation for the existence of it
• What type of argument is Aquinas' Cosmological Argument?

  Inductive a posteriori