Shushanik Paskevichyan
Professor Dale
Phil 4
Argumentative Essay Final
17 December 2018
Argumentative Essay
Anything that has an effect was caused by something to initiate the reaction, meaning if there is no cause there is no effect. St Thomas Aquinas claims that the reason to believe that God exist is because there has to be a primary cause to create a reaction. His first cause argument explains why he as a philosopher believed in the existence of God and how he chose to view his personal claims and premises. Aquinas first cause argument states,
“We see in the world around us that there is an order of efficient causes. Nor is it ever found (in fact it is impossible) that something is its own efficient cause. If it were, it would be prior to itself, which is impossible. Nevertheless, the order of efficient causes cannot proceed to infinity, for in any such order the first is cause of the middle (whether one or many) and the middle of the last. Without the cause, the effect does not follow. Thus, if the first cause did not exist, neither would the middle and last causes in the sequence. If, however, there were an infinite regression of efficient causes, there would be no first efficient cause and therefore no middle causes or final effects, which is obviously not the case. Thus it is necessary to posit some first efficient cause, which everyone calls ‘God.’”
To understand his argument it can be easy to imagine dominos, that are lined up to fall, this broad example simplifies what Aquinas was attempting to say. So with the first domino being pushed it causes the other domino's to fall over, because there was a beginning, there then was the middle and end but it would not have happened without having to push the first domino, in Aquinas’ words the first cause. Pushing over the first domino to start the chain reaction, but there is no "first domino", so the chain reaction never starts. There is never a "beginning" to any infinite process. Something has to set it in motion and St Thomas connects this to the belief that God exists, God is the first efficient cause that set the universe in motion. The efficient cause Aquinas mentions, or the causation to all things is God. There is a first cause that sets events in motion, the efficient cause in this argument is God. Efficient cause is the primary cause because according to Aquinas it does not go to its former state, from the first, later comes to middle and then the end. Making it a set of current events,or no infinite regression. Aquinas says that there can not be an Infinite regression of cause
Without out a primary cause there is no effect that would take place. There has to be the first initial cause for there to be anything that happens in the world. Aquinas is sayings that we can trace back moment but not forever, because the first thing that started up the chain of causes and effects is God. Whether it is the creation of something so advanced is the telephone or the creation of something as simple as fire, you cannot trace it’s beginning infinitely there had to be the first idea or first thought that had to occur because the creation of anything we now use in the world has an origin. See in today’s world we have smart phones but going back only a few decades that was just a theory to actually see the person you are talking with across the world in real time and then going back centuries, the idea of communicating with someone across the world in current time was only a theory. The efficient causes is when the first start ideas and theories of objects like telephones or fire but then they slowly evolved they have a middle period, then a last period. Aquinas is arguing the for the world to have effect the first cause was God. God in himself is an effect so therefore he does not need a cause to have a beginning, or origin like everything else in the world. After the first efficient cause there cannot be another first efficient cause because that would make the effects forever.
[1] All things are caused.
[2] Nothing causes itself.
[3] All things are caused by something else.
From [1] and [2].
[4] There can’t be an infinite regression of causes.
[5] There must be a first cause.
From [3] and [4].
[6] God exists.
Interpretation, from [5].
Above is a rewrite of Aquinas’ argument. All things are caused,meaning that nothing comes out of nowhere, everything has a beginning. Therefore nothing causes itself, meaning all things are caused by something and must be set in motion by a first cause. There can’t be an infinite regression of causes,is claiming that the causal chain can not be infinite .There must be a first cause and in conclusion God exists because he is the first cause.
From the standard rewrite we can simplify the claims that Aquinas is making and notice the errors in his logic because of how the rewrite is structured.Aquinas’ first cause argument is to prove that God exists, through his claims and premises he comes to the conclusion that God is the first cause, however there are some problems such as that claim[3] and [4]in the standard rewrite are conflicting towards each other with in his argument. Some of the claims he makes, are logically inconsistent, individually the claims are true but when referring to them together they do not have consistency in the their logic 4. In the standard rewrite claim [3] says, “ All things are caused by something else” and claim [4] states, “There can’t be an infinite regression of causes.” They can not be true because they are essentially arguing against each other, making it logically inconsistent. [3] is claiming that something has to cause something in order for it to happen,ultimately that means that there is an infinite regression of the past, but [4] by saying that there can not be an infinite regression, this saying that there is a cause to everything that happens. The understanding of infinite regression is, a chain of causes where each action poses as if it causes itself requiring another event of exactly the same type to cause it. In simple terms infinite regression is the cause action of a chain effect. With [3] it is saying that all things need to be caused because something that is caused is happening. Aquinas is deliberately not implying God, because it was not helping him make his point, this is known as fallacy of special pleading. Aquinas is exempting God from the argument in [3], showing his biased theologian understanding.
Aquinas is essentially making God an arbitrary exception. He is arguing for God but not with that particular claim. God in this context is the first and only primary cause, He is who existed without cause and to explain current causes the answer is God. If followed with the universal understanding that Aquinas had, he has a bias approach and he fails to mention, that to him God is self caused or even uncaused. From the rewrite it is understood that God was the exception in claim [3]. Everything that has a cause has a cause leading to infinite regression, we know there must be a beginning because this can not occur infinitely because it leads nowhere and the only logical conclusion would be, what ever started these chain of events had no beginning. All because he chose to exempt God from parts of his argument, his logic is scrutinized.
Nothing can cause itself, everything has a have a beginning middle and eventually an end. Aquinas’ argument on whether or not God exists is weak in the sense that he was not consistent within his reasonings, because he was assuming that the reader would already know that God exists.