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Parfit.
Why does Parfit hold that even an infinite series of events cannot explain itself?
What is ‘fine tuning’?
What is the ‘many-worlds’ hypothesis?
How does the many-worlds hypothesis explain the appearance of ‘fine-tuning’?
What natural explanation do we now have for the appearance of design in nature?
How would God’s existence explain ‘fine-tuning’?
Distinguish cosmic and local possibilities.
Which of these is Parfit concerned with here?
What is the null possibility?
Why does Parfit think the null possibility needs the ‘least’ explanation? (Do you agree?) **
What is the ‘all worlds’ hypothesis?
Why does Parfit reject the suggestion that what is might exist because it’s necessary for it to exist?
What is the Axiarchic view?
Do you agree with Parfit that the axiarchic view makes sense? Explain his reasons & yours. **
Why does Parfit reject this view?
What is the brute fact view?
What is a selector?
What is a credible selector?
Distinguish probabilistic and effective selectors.
What is the exception to Parfit’s claim that the brute fact and the all-worlds views give more or
less the same ‘predictions’ about what we should expect our world to be like?
Why does Parfit think being wholly-law-governed or having simple laws count against both the
brute fact and all-worlds views? Do you agree? Discuss. **
What is a logical necessity?
Explain Parfit’s hierarchy of selectors.
Why does Parfit hold that, if there is some ‘highest’ selector, it must be a brute fact that it is the
highest selector?
Aquinas.
What is a cosmological argument?
What are the ‘obvious observations’ that ground Aquinas’ arguments from change and motion?
What ‘powerful principles’ drive these arguments?
How does Aquinas use a feature of finite sequences to argue that an infinite sequence is
impossible? Does this really work? What would Parfit suggest as an alternative? Can these
cosmological arguments be saved here? Discuss.
How are necessity and possibility related to existence in time for Aquinas?
What general assumption which Parfit rejects, does Aquinas make in all his cosmological
arguments?
What is the ‘source’ of properties that vary in degree (such as heat), according to Aquinas?
What is the powerful principle in Aquinas’ argument from the ‘guidedness of nature’?