Metaphysics
Philosophy and God
Metaphysics – the branch of philosophy that studies the nature of
reality. The term itself means ‘after or beyond physics.’ The key
metaphysical question:
What is real?
Does God Exist? Some philosophers say yes…
The Ontological Argument – an argument for the existence of
God based on the nature of God’s being.
Saint Anselm (1033 – 1109 CE)
claimed that, if we were to conceive
of the ultimate - something in
which nothing greater could be
conceived - that BEING would be
God.
 = no idea that we could think of is bigger than this
idea
 relied on reason alone when constructing his
argument.
 starts from the position of belief in God: Credo ut
intelligam – “I believe in order that I might
understand.”
The Cosmological Argument – an argument for the existence of
God that claims that there must be an ultimate causal explanation for
why the universe as a totality exists.
Saint Thomas Aquinas (1225 –
1274 CE) claimed that there are five
proofs for the existence of God.
From the position of metaphysics,
the two most important are:
Motion – everything in
the universe is in motion.
For everything in the
universe to moving there
must be a MOVER.
God = The First Mover
Causal Order –
everything in the
universe has a cause.
Stretching back through
the chain of causes to
the beginning leads one
to God.
God = The First Cause
ST. THOMAS AQUINAS’
FIVE PROOFS FOR
THE EXISTENCE OF GOD
Teacher’s Copy
ARGUMENT
GOD AS
1. Motion / Change
Unmoved Mover
2. Cause / Efficient
Cause
3. Contingency /
Necessity
4. Perfection /
Excellence
Uncaused Cause
5. Design / Order /
Intelligence
Intelligent Being – who
directs/designs all things
toward their respective
ends
Noncontingent /
Necessary Being
The Perfect
CATEGORY / TYPE OF
ARGUMENT
Cosmological Argument
- results from a study
of the universe; there
must be an ultimate
causal explanation for the
way things are
Cosmological Argument
Cosmological Argument
Moral Argument
- the perfect virtue(s)
must exist for the partial
virtues to exist.
Design Argument
- God is the supreme
wise intelligence in
whom all the order in
the universe
originates.
- things could not exist
by mere chance but
are designed for a
purpose by an
Intelligent Being.
Ontology and Cosmology
go.grolier.com – Grolier online Encyclopedia
Ontology, a branch of metaphysics that deals with reality itself, as apart from the subjective
impressions and thoughts of the person who experiences it. The term was introduced by
Christian von Wolff in the 18th century to designate a field of speculative thought lying
between natural philosophy, which is concerned with the origins and the structure of the
world, and mental philosophy, or psychology, dealing with the mind. Ontology, he asserted,
should find the answers to questions more basic than those considered in either natural
philosophy or psychology.
There is a reality that gives rise to sensations. Obviously, the sensations are quite different
from the "thing-in-itself" that stimulates them. Light waves, for example, are not the same as
the colors that are experienced by the human observer. They are the "thing-in-itself," or an
aspect of reality that gives rise to particular types of sensations.
Cosmology, the study of the structure of the universe as a whole. The word derives from the
Greek word, kosmos, for the order that is revealed in the beauty of the sky. Cosmology is
distinct from cosmogony, which is concerned with the origin and evolution of individual
objects in the universe, such as stars and galaxies. (These formation processes also are
discussed in this article, although very little is understood about them as yet.) The study of the
cosmos extends back to ancient times, but modern scientific cosmology may be said to have
begun as recently as 1917, when Albert Einstein applied his general theory of relativity to the
structure of the universe as a whole.