Argument from the world as an interacting whole
From Religions Wiki
Argument from the world as an interacting whole was developed by Norris Clarke and popularised by Peter Kreeft. [1] It is a hybrid argument similar to the argument from design, the fine-tuning argument and Why is there something rather than nothing?
The Argument[edit]
- Object interact with each other in "interconnected, interlocking, dynamic", stable and reciprocal ways as part of an overall system.
- An object's active nature depends on the other parts for its own intelligibility and ability to act.
- No individual object can be self-sufficient or self-explanatory for its nature depends on the rest of the system.
- The system as a whole cannot be explained because it is comprises many individually unexplained parts.
- The system requires a "unifying efficient cause" to explain it.
- Neither the individual parts nor the whole is self-sufficient or self-explanatory.
- The system is organised based on a unifying idea.
- A real idea requires a real mind. The unifying idea requires a designer and the designer pre-exists or transcends the system.
Counter arguments[edit]
Anthropomorphism[edit]
Imaging objects have agency. The concepts of unity and reciprocal are human inventions.
Redundant parts[edit]
What is the point of all those unused types of elementary particles? Only a few types exist normally but many redundant types have been found (in the standard model of particle physics). What is the point of other galaxies? Why all the empty space? A simpler system would have met the alleged design goals.
What is an explanation?[edit]
Brute fact?
References[edit]