The Teleological Argument
AQA requirements:
1. The basis of Paley’s Analogical Argument in observation and thought
2. Paley’s Analogical Design Argument
3. Criticisms of Design Arguments from David Hume
4. The strengths and weaknesses of Paley’s argument
5. The status of Paley’s argument as a ‘proof’
6. The value of Paley’s argument for religious faith
Key Intro Points:
• Design arguments are often known as teleological arguments.
• Teleological - looking at the end in order to draw conclusions.
• Telos - end or purpose.
• This argument seeks to prove - world was designed with an end/purpose to prove the existence
of God. Everything in the world displays design.
• It is an a posteriori/inductive - it looks at our experiences of the world and draws inferences from
it.
• Most famous - Thomas Aquinas - his fifth way - William Paley - His most influential work is ‘Natu-
ral Theology.’
• Design arguments follow this pattern: the universe has order, the complexity of the universe
shows evidence of design, such design design implies a designer, the designer of the universe is
God.
• The bible - suggests that it is obvious from looking at the world that God designed - Psalm “the
heavens tell out the glory of God, the vault of heaven reveals his handiwork.”
• Design qua Purpose - the universe was designed to fulfil a purpose.
• Design qua Regularity - the universe behaves according to some some order.
1. The basis of Paley’s Analogical Argument in observation and thought
• Paley’s argument is a posteriori - it is based on sense experience.
• The argument is inductive - where premise is used to supply strong evidence for the truth of the
conclusion.
• Paley’s argument is based on three particular observations about the world:
• Its complexity - He looks at the complexity of the laws of nature by which every-
thing is governed - observed the complexity of the natural world.
• Its regularity - He observes the regularity of the orbits of comets, moons and plan-
ets and the regularity of the seasons of the year.
• Its purpose - He observes that the machines we make are built for purpose, the
complexity of which implies its purpose even if we do not know what the purpose
is - this therefore implies that the world too has a purpose.
• On the basis of these observations Paley formulated his inductive Design Argument:
• Some objects in the world show clear evidence that they were designed because
they exhibit complexity, regularity and purpose.
• The universe appears to exhibit complexity.
• So it is likely that the universe was designed.
• Altogether - Paley argues inductively from what we can see in the world (the appearance of de-
sign) back to the supposed cause (God).
• Foundations of Paley’s argument - Aristotle’s argument that everything in nature moves towards
a final end or purpose - Aquinas - the design argument - his fifth way.
2. Paley’s Analogical Design Argument
• Paley wrote his version of the teleological argument in ‘Natural Theology’ (1802) - natural theol-
ogy is the view that questions about God’s existence, nature and attributes can be answered
without referring to scripture but by using reason, science and observation.
• Two parts of Paley’s argument - Design qua Purpose (Analogy of the watch), Design qua Regu-
larity (Newton’s Laws of motion and gravity).
AQA requirements:
1. The basis of Paley’s Analogical Argument in observation and thought
2. Paley’s Analogical Design Argument
3. Criticisms of Design Arguments from David Hume
4. The strengths and weaknesses of Paley’s argument
5. The status of Paley’s argument as a ‘proof’
6. The value of Paley’s argument for religious faith
Key Intro Points:
• Design arguments are often known as teleological arguments.
• Teleological - looking at the end in order to draw conclusions.
• Telos - end or purpose.
• This argument seeks to prove - world was designed with an end/purpose to prove the existence
of God. Everything in the world displays design.
• It is an a posteriori/inductive - it looks at our experiences of the world and draws inferences from
it.
• Most famous - Thomas Aquinas - his fifth way - William Paley - His most influential work is ‘Natu-
ral Theology.’
• Design arguments follow this pattern: the universe has order, the complexity of the universe
shows evidence of design, such design design implies a designer, the designer of the universe is
God.
• The bible - suggests that it is obvious from looking at the world that God designed - Psalm “the
heavens tell out the glory of God, the vault of heaven reveals his handiwork.”
• Design qua Purpose - the universe was designed to fulfil a purpose.
• Design qua Regularity - the universe behaves according to some some order.
1. The basis of Paley’s Analogical Argument in observation and thought
• Paley’s argument is a posteriori - it is based on sense experience.
• The argument is inductive - where premise is used to supply strong evidence for the truth of the
conclusion.
• Paley’s argument is based on three particular observations about the world:
• Its complexity - He looks at the complexity of the laws of nature by which every-
thing is governed - observed the complexity of the natural world.
• Its regularity - He observes the regularity of the orbits of comets, moons and plan-
ets and the regularity of the seasons of the year.
• Its purpose - He observes that the machines we make are built for purpose, the
complexity of which implies its purpose even if we do not know what the purpose
is - this therefore implies that the world too has a purpose.
• On the basis of these observations Paley formulated his inductive Design Argument:
• Some objects in the world show clear evidence that they were designed because
they exhibit complexity, regularity and purpose.
• The universe appears to exhibit complexity.
• So it is likely that the universe was designed.
• Altogether - Paley argues inductively from what we can see in the world (the appearance of de-
sign) back to the supposed cause (God).
• Foundations of Paley’s argument - Aristotle’s argument that everything in nature moves towards
a final end or purpose - Aquinas - the design argument - his fifth way.
2. Paley’s Analogical Design Argument
• Paley wrote his version of the teleological argument in ‘Natural Theology’ (1802) - natural theol-
ogy is the view that questions about God’s existence, nature and attributes can be answered
without referring to scripture but by using reason, science and observation.
• Two parts of Paley’s argument - Design qua Purpose (Analogy of the watch), Design qua Regu-
larity (Newton’s Laws of motion and gravity).
