Dr. touched on various philosophers and their ideas in this class with the following being a brief summary....
As discussed in the previous class concerning Anselm's ontological argument: both parties need to agree on a definition. Anselm does not speak of the origin of God. We perceive God from our experience. The existence of God (as well as the immortality of the soul) can be known through natural means (reason) not strictly from Faith.
THE SELF EVIDENT St. Thomas says: It is self evident that we know the material world as it is through our senses and the fact that it exists in an objective way is self evident. We recognize this truth, but...modern philosophy will say NO. Modern philosophy puts forth that what we know is not the world around us but rather what we know are our ideas.
Why do people put forth arguments against the obvious? The answer lies in the will. The will intentionally distorts reality. Most philosophy is the discussion of the obvious. A statement needs to be self evident. Example: A part is not greater than the whole. In the example, nothing can be argued against. The predicate of the statement is contained in the subject and is undeniable, obvious. The predicate does not add to our knowledge in a self evident proposition.
SI FALLOR SUM: If I am in error, I exist.
St. Augustine fought against the skeptics. The skeptics (Cicero, etc.) claim that everything is open to doubt. St Augustine brought their skepticism full circle: skeptic: I doubt everything. Nothing can be known for sure. Augustine: If I doubt, I know for certain I exist...in the act of doubting, I exist. Therefore, there are other things I know that must exist and cannot be doubted.
Rene Decartes (appr
THE ANTHROPIC PRINCIPAL Everything in the universe is constructed in such a way as to allow man to exist.
Where did this principal come from?
Brandon Carter, the British mathematician who coined the term "anthropic principle" (1974),13 noted the strange inequity of a universe that spends about 15 billion years "preparing" for the existence of a creature that has the potential to survive no more than 10 million years (optimistically).14 Carter formalized this enormous imbalance between the time required to produce the possibility for human life and the brevity of the species' (potential) survival as the "anthropic principle inequality."15
SI FALLOR SUM: If I am in error
