Atheism and Theism JJ Haldane - Common Sense Atheism

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176 J.J. Haldane (sections 4 and 5) and cosmological (section 6). Contemporary philosophical theists who find merit in reasoning of the first sort generally favour arguments from regularity. While presenting a version of these I have also claimed, in contrast with most philosophers, 5 that the possibility of an old style design argument from the ‘directedness’ of things is not excluded by the development of evolutionary theory. Here it may be useful to have a ‘map’ (figure 4.1) summarizing the various lines of reasoning presented in chapter 2. These diagrams are intended only as reminders and I shall not attempt to repeat the details of the arguments they abbreviate. However, a short résumé of part of the argumentation mapped in figure 4.1A is appropriate. First, I began with the assumption – which Smart and I share – that science is the systematic study of a largely mind-independent world. That world contains a plurality of kinds of things animate and inanimate. The members of these various kinds are united by sharing qualitatively similar natures. In the case of living things these natures include principles of organic development and activity. With regard to the apparent functional or vital attributes, powers and activities of organisms one must either be a realist or an eliminativist. Realism is the claim that such features are genuinely as they seem and are possessed by their subjects independently of our conceptions of them. For one reason or another eliminativism rejects this, holding instead that what appear to be real biological and teleological attributes of such and such a sort are either reducible to more basic properties which are real, or else are simply shadows cast by the light of human interest. My first argument was to the effect that the natural sciences are realist in their assumptions and that Smart faces a dilemma: either to endorse this view, thereby giving scope for an old style ‘directedness’ design argument, or else to reject it without scientific warrant in favour of an ideologically driven, mechanistic reductionism. The point of the latter disjunct is that nothing in the study of nature requires that we only allow as real what physics deals with; to suppose otherwise is a prejudice of philosophy not a discovery of science. In his reply Smart reaffirms his physicalism but denies that it forces him to be a conceptual reductionist; as he writes ‘My physicalism is an ontological one, not a translational one’ (chapter 3, p. 153). The possibility of such a position is not in dispute; indeed I allowed for it and described an example when discussing the difference between ontological and conceptual or explanatory behaviourism (chapter 2, p. 84). My point was rather that while Smart may allow the non-translatability of teleological descriptions he denies that there is – in reality (ontologically) – any teleological behaviour. What he has to say later about levels of organization understood ‘in a weak sense’ does not alter this fact. On his account a tree is still ‘nothing over and above a physical mechanism . . . even though talk of a tree is not translatable into talk
A The general scheme of arguments from world to God I Cosmological To a cause of existence from contingency (Cf. Aquinas’s Ways 1–3) Reply to Smart 177 II Teleological To a cause of order from systematicity (Cf. Aquinas’s Way 5) (i) From Regularity (ii) From Directedness (1) General causal laws B The particular scheme (2) Specific fine-tuning I Phenomenal States Qualitative – involving sensory modes of presentation The source of the sensory? (i) Innate? Problems (a) General worries about evolution (b) Specific worries about innatism Figure 4.1 (1) Non-intentional directedness (a) living things (b) reproductive species (2) Intentional directedness (c) thinking agents II Intentional States Representational – involving conceptual modes of presentation The source of the conceptual? (i) Innate? (ii) Acquired? (1) Individual abstraction Problems (a) anti-abstraction arguments (b) power of conceptformation is unexplained (2) Social induction (a) potentiality still required (b) power of the community is unexplained
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Atheism and Theism
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Atheism and Theism Second Edition J
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Contents Preface to Second Edition
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Contentss vii 6 The Fine-Tuning Arg
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x Preface to Second Edition extent
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Recommendations and Reviews ‘Jack
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Introduction 1 Introduction J.J. Ha
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Introduction 3 show an awareness of
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Introduction 5 have different views
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Atheism and Theism 7 bang’ will a
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Atheism and Theism 9 simply that sh
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Atheism and Theism 11 from inorgani
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Atheism and Theism 13 actually affe
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Atheism and Theism 15 so on the phe
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Atheism and Theism 17 Faulty Anthro
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Atheism and Theism 19 values of the
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Atheism and Theism 21 planets, life
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Atheism and Theism 23 that God coul
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Atheism and Theism 25 was created i
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Atheism and Theism 27 axiarchic hyp
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Atheism and Theism 29 leading to th
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Atheism and Theism 31 necessary. Si
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Atheism and Theism 33 As I have jus
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Atheism and Theism 35 I would point
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Atheism and Theism 37 arisen. This
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Atheism and Theism 39 existence was
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Atheism and Theism 41 If Field’s
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Atheism and Theism 43 ‘sempiterna
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Atheism and Theism 45 There are all
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Atheism and Theism 47 wager. Pascal
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Atheism and Theism 49 pity to depri
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Atheism and Theism 51 11 Miracles T
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Atheism and Theism 53 that the orig
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Atheism and Theism 55 veracity. Thu
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Atheism and Theism 57 a more straig
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Atheism and Theism 59 There is a co
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Atheism and Theism 61 discussion wi
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Atheism and Theism 63 quantum effec
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Atheism and Theism 65 Two other wea
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Atheism and Theism 67 which go as f
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Atheism and Theism 69 to persist be
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Atheism and Theism 71 16 See the ti
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Atheism and Theism 73 62 Jonathan B
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Atheism and Theism 75 105 See for e
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Atheism and Theism 77 In this respe
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Atheism and Theism 79 an immaterial
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Atheism and Theism 81 doctrinal rel
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Atheism and Theism 83 of conception
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Atheism and Theism 85 no relevant f
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Atheism and Theism 87 ‘Mary is ha
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Atheism and Theism 89 seems natural
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Atheism and Theism 91 This ‘elimi
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Atheism and Theism 93 channels to w
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Atheism and Theism 95 the failure o
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Atheism and Theism 97 the grip of a
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Atheism and Theism 99 Taking these
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Atheism and Theism 101 allowing tha
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Atheism and Theism 103 through the
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Atheism and Theism 105 of the air,
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Atheism and Theism 107 possession o
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Atheism and Theism 109 From what he
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Atheism and Theism 111 express my t
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Atheism and Theism 113 hypothesis t
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Atheism and Theism 115 cannot, know
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Atheism and Theism 117 CAREER DEVEL
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Atheism and Theism 119 is a time wh
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Atheism and Theism 121 general prin
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Atheism and Theism 123 one another,
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Page 147 and 148: Atheism and Theism 133 points. For
Page 149 and 150: Atheism and Theism 135 the concepts
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Page 153 and 154: Atheism and Theism 139 a just God.
Page 155 and 156: Atheism and Theism 141 and to direc
Page 157 and 158: Atheism and Theism 143 to moral sel
Page 159 and 160: Atheism and Theism 145 between on t
Page 161 and 162: Atheism and Theism 147 to emphasize
Page 163 and 164: Atheism and Theism 149 4 For essays
Page 165 and 166: Reply to Haldane 151 3 Reply to Hal
Page 167 and 168: Reply to Haldane 153 a well-agreed
Page 169 and 170: Reply to Haldane 155 the molecules
Page 171 and 172: Reply to Haldane 157 the football.
Page 173 and 174: Reply to Haldane 159 4 Chicken and
Page 175 and 176: Reply to Haldane 161 at things in a
Page 177 and 178: Reply to Haldane 163 else for its e
Page 179 and 180: Reply to Haldane 165 of the proper
Page 181 and 182: Reply to Haldane 167 A naturalistic
Page 183 and 184: Reply to Haldane 169 7 Earlier (see
Page 185 and 186: Reply to Smart 171 4 Reply to Smart
Page 187 and 188: Reply to Smart 173 philosophical ph
Page 189: Reply to Smart 175 metaphysical ans
Page 193 and 194: Reply to Smart 179 of self-replicat
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Page 197 and 198: Reply to Smart 183 was the light of
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Page 201 and 202: Reply to Smart 187 God and a covena
Page 203 and 204: Reply to Smart 189 New Testament sc
Page 205 and 206: Reply to Smart 191 One step enough.
Page 207 and 208: Reply to Smart 193 15 In a letter t
Page 209 and 210: Afterword 195 consciousness on the
Page 211 and 212: Afterword 197 Of course the identif
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Further Reflections on Theism 227 o
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Further Reflections on Theism 229 t
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Further Reflections on Theism 231 R
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Further Reflections on Theism 233 e
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Further Reflections on Theism 235 w
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Further Reflections on Theism 239 H
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Further Reflections on Theism 243 e
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Further Reflections on Theism 245 P
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Further Reflections on Theism 247 a
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Further Reflections on Theism 249 o
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Bibliography 251 Bibliography This
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Bibliography 253 Additional sources
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Bibliography 255 The problem of evi
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Bibliography 257 for theism, in whi
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argument, from contingency, 32-43,
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Descartes, R., 8, 23-4, 33, 198-200
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existence of knowable by reason, 4,
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methodology, 4, 6-7, 20, 69, 80-3,
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primordial soup, 152-3, 179, 214-15
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space-time, 9, 12, 36-7, 40, 42-3,
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REVELATION
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