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is made completely so by the cosmological argument. (Footnote
44: The possibility of a third alternative---that of unconscious
purpose---is considered in the sequel.) Are we therefore foolish
to believe that the universe is the product of intelligent will?
If it be objected that I have assumed the identity of the intelligent
will and the absolutely necessary being, I answer that I
have already demonstrated the absurdity of a plurality of ultimate
beings. The only rational conclusion seems to be that the
complexity of conspiring causes does serve to indicate that the
universe is the product of intelligent will, and that therefore the
objection to the contrary is invalid.
Because is commits the fallacy of consequent.---The teleological
argument is guilty of this fallacy because it reasons from
the fact that virtuous minds tend to produce valuable things to
the conclusion that valuable things must have been produced by
a virtuous mind. It will be recalled that the second ground of
the inference to effects as ends, according to the teleological argument,
is the progressive production of increasingly valuable
things in the cosmic process. Now "valuable things are the kind
of things which we, assuming that we are virtuous persons,
would aim at producing if we were creating a world. We therefore
think that, if there are valuable things in the world, they
have probably been produced by a mind with purposes similar
to our own." (Footnote 45: Stace, op. cit., p. 81.)
But this argument commits a common logical error called
the fallacy of consequent. Such fallacy consists in supposing
that a condition and its consequent are convertible, so that it is
possible to argue from the presence of the consequent to the existence
of the condition. Thus, for example, the fallacy is
committed if I assume a theory proved when facts are present
which should be present if the theory were true: this, however,
is only verification, not proof, which would require that I show
all logically possible alternatives to be untenable. [[307]] From