HPL112 STEVENS God's Existence Emmanuel Kant's Metaphysical Philosophy

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HPL112

Stevens Institute of Technology

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141. Follow the instruction to write 3pages essay

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HPL 112 Science and Metaphysics Spring 2019 Prof. Michael Steinmann Second paper assignment a) Three pages, double-spaced. Submit printed copy no later than Tuesday, March 25. Requests for extended deadlines have to be made in advance. You can submit earlier if you want, email me the paper if it is ready before or during spring break! b) As a general recommendation: before you start writing, write down your thoughts and arguments by hand. For each argument, find a quote from the text. Make sure to interpret the quote specifically (and correctly!). Write your text “around” the quotes. Make sure to mention counter-arguments, the more the better. Write the introduction and conclusion at the end. c) Pick one of the following topics: • • Kant: freedom of the will (pages 49-57 in excerpt). Kant’s solution to the problem of free will is compatibilist: he assumes that freedom and determinism do not exclude each other but coexist insofar as one and the same phenomenon can be understood from two different points of view: as empirical phenomenon, following the laws of causality, and as “thing in itself,” that is, “intelligible subject” which can be thought to act freely and start causal chains on its own. Reason is “intelligible” insofar as it cannot be represented in the same way than physical things. Explain Kant’s argument and state whether you find it convincing. Do find other theories more convincing, and if yes, which ones? Kant thinks that morality proves that we can think of ourselves as free, do you agree? If determinism would be the only possible approach, would morality be impossible then? How would we go about questions of responsibility and punishment if there were no free will? You do not have to answer all of these questions, I only mention them to give you some ideas. The minimum you have to do is explain the main argument in Kant’s text. Kant: proofs for the existence of God (pages 61-85). Kant distinguishes three proofs for the existence of God: the ontological, cosmological, and physico-theological proof. None of these proofs is ultimately conclusive for him. At the same time, he thinks that it is logically both possible and required to assume a necessary being that contains the ground for all other beings that exist. This means that although the very idea of a god is meaningful, we have no way to figure out by reason whether such a being exists. You can choose whether you want to discuss all three proofs or only one, and to what degree you want to engage in a discussion of the demarcation between faith and reason. As a minimum, you have to provide a careful analysis of Kant’s text. The physico-theological proof has a long tradition: it assumes that nature can be read as a testimony for the existence of intelligent design. The ontological proof is merely conceptual and may seem absurd at first glance. However, one could argue that ideas of god were never strictly empirical. The ontological proof raises the question of what exactly makes the idea of god possible and creates a need for it in our thinking and feeling. Again, I only mention possible topics here.
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Running Head: EXISTENCE OF GOD

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Existence of God
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EXISTENCE OF GOD
Introduction

The argument of whether or not the controversial discourse of God's existence is true has
brought differences among various influential people and scholars to date. It is as a result of each
and every one of them backing their point of view based on what they think is ethical. For this
reason, Emmanuel Kant a Russian philosopher acknowledged ethics and metaphysical
philosophy shades more light on the controversy. His metaphysical philosophy forms the central
pillar of the natural reality of the mind and a situation necessary in figuring out actuality and
possibility. He alluded and vindicated his discourse on God’s existence using three metaphysical
proofs; cosmological, physicotheological and ontological proof. The observed harmony and
order compelled him to find out what influences the order and harmony only to conclude that an
unseen wise creator must be behind the order (Kant, Wood & Giovanni, 1998). Thus, on the
physicotheological perspective, the world is arranged in an intelligent and sophisticated design
observable from its nature giving the dynamic reasons that seek explanatory totality that affirms
the existence of God. Therefore, the existence is real and exhibitable from the contemporary
world design possibly attributed to a supernatural central being.
Kant vindicated his cosmological proof that God exists from a review of existent things
in two different dimensions by differentiation based on persuasive power and cogency (SEoP,
2014). For instance, “To say that something exists even in the case of God is not to predicate a
property that its concept lacks if the thing did not exist” (Kant, Wood & Giovanni, 1998). First
and foremost, he argued that every individuated object bares its origin from a supernatural being
which acts as the Supreme Being that controls and manage the day to day happenings of the
world. For example, the existence of the order of the universe designed and arranged complexly
with exhibitable beauty is an attribution to a natural creator. Thus, through this transcendental

EXISTENCE OF GOD

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dialect, he managed overwhelmingly to bring out reasons why God must have existed and still
exists.
Also, the cosmological proof of God’s existence stresses on the cogency which plays a
critical role in exhibiting different supernatural objects that lie on the earth surface. For example,
Kant emphasizes the ...


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