Essay on The Argument from Design, by William Paley

During the 1800th century, William Paley, an English philosopher of religion and ethics, wrote the essay The Argument from Design. In The Argument from Design, Paley tries to prove the existence of a supreme being through the development of a special kind of argument known as the teleological argument. The teleological argument is argument by analogy, an argument based on the similarities between two different subjects. This essay purposefully attempts to break down Paley’s argument and does so in the following manner: firstly, Paley’s basis for the teleological argument is introduced; secondly, Paley’s argument is derived and analyzed; thirdly, the connection between Paley’s argument and the existence of a supreme being is made; and†¦show more content†¦Having introduced Paleys main a posteriori experience, the following paragraphs will describe and justify Paleys reasoning for using such argument to describe the existence of a superior being. F irstly, Paley concentrates in the process leading to the creation of the watch. The process for creating a watch is very systematic and involves knowledge of mechanical engineering, a trade known to few men. Yet, it is not necessary to know the inner workings of the watch to use it on a daily basis: it is only necessary to understand the relationship between the position of the watchs hands to the sunrise and sunset of day. Paley concludes that even though he could not create a watch, some supreme being could create such watch. In other words, anything that shows evidence of creation has a creator and such creator exists or has existed at one point in time. To further refine the previous conclusion, Paley acknowledges the imprecision of the watch, for the watch is not always correct in predicting time. The watch might get ahead or behind, but the overall purpose for which the watch was created remains intact: it might predict the wrong time, note however, that it still predicts time . The conclusion in the previous paragraph is not contradicted by any of the watchs faults simply because the being’s purpose for creating the watch still exists. Therefore, Paleys supreme being not only creates but also does so with a specific purpose.Show MoreRelatedEssay The Teleological Argument1368 Words   |  6 PagesWilliam Paley and David Hume’s argument over God’s existence is known as the teleological argument, or the argument from design. Arguments from design are arguments concerning God or some type of creator’s existence based on the ideas of order or purpose in universe. Hume takes on the approach of arguing against the argument of design, while Paley argues for it. 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