A Cosmological Argument against Physicalism

Authors

  • Mats Wahlberg Umeå University

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.24204/ejpr.v9i2.1938

Keywords:

Cosmological Arguments, Physicalism, Causal Closure

Abstract

In this article, I present a Leibnizian cosmological argument to the conclusion that either the totality of physical beings has a non-physical cause, or a necessary being exists. The crucial premise of the argument is a restricted version of the Principle of Sufficient Reason, namely the claim that every contingent physical phenomenon has a sufficient cause (PSR-P). I defend this principle by comparing it with a causal principle that is fundamental for physicalism, namely the Causal Closure of Physics, which says that every physical effect has a sufficient physical cause (CC). I find that the evidence for Causal Closure is weaker than the evidence for PSR-P, which means that physicalists who take CC to be justified must concede that PSR-P is also justified, and to a higher degree. Since my Leibnizian cosmological argument succeeds if PSR-P is granted, I conclude that physicalists must either give up CC and thereby physicalism, or accept that a necessary being exists.

References

Draper, P. (2007) ‘Natural Selection and the Problem of Evil’, in The Secular Web (ed) God or Blind Nature? Philosophers Debate the Evidence (2007-2008), http://www.infidels.org/library/modern/debates/great-debate.html, pp. 93–109.

Feser, E. (2013) ‘The New Atheists and the Cosmological Argument’, Midwest Studies in Philosophy, vol. 37, no. 1, pp. 154–177.

Hume, D. and Popkin, R. H. (1980) Dialogues concerning natural religion and the posthumous essays, Of the immortality of the soul and Of suicide, Indianapolis, Hackett Pub. Co.

Koons, R. C. (1997) ‘A New Look at the Cosmological Argument’, American Philosophical Quarterly, vol. 34, no. 2, pp. 193–211.

Krauss, L. M. and Dawkins, R. (2012) A Universe from Nothing: Why There Is Something Rather Than Nothing, London, Simon & Schuster.

Layman, C. S. (2006) Letters to Doubting Thomas: A case for the Existence of God, Oxford, New York, Oxford University Press.

Lowe, E. J. (2003) ‘Physical Closure and the Invisibility of Mind’, in Walter, S. and Heckmann, H.-D. (eds) Physicalism and Mental Causation: The metaphysics of mind and action, Exeter, Imprint Academic, pp. 137–154.

Montero, B. (2003) ‘Varieties of Causal Closure’, in Walter, S. and Heckmann, H.-D. (eds) Physicalism and Mental Causation: The metaphysics of mind and action, Exeter, Imprint Academic, pp. 173–190.

Oppy, G. (2000) ‘On ‘a new cosmological argument’’, Religious Studies, vol. 36, no. 3, pp. 345–353.

Papineau, D. (2002) Thinking about consciousness, New York, Oxford, Oxford University Press; Clarendon Press.

Papineau, D. (2009) ‘The Causal Closure of the Physical and Naturalism’, in McLaughlin, B. P., Beckermann, A. and Walter, S. (eds) The Oxford Handbook of Philosophy of Mind, Oxford, Clarendon Press, pp. 53–65.

Pruss, A. (2009) ‘The Leibnizian Cosmological Argument’, in Craig, W. L. and Moreland, J. P. (eds) The Blackwell companion to natural theology, Chichester, U.K., Malden, MA, Wiley-Blackwell, pp. 24–100.

Pruss, A. R. (1998), International Journal for Philosophy of Religion, vol. 43, no. 3, pp. 149–165.

Pruss, A. R. (2006) The principle of sufficient reason: A reassessment [Online], Cambridge, Cambridge University Press. Available at https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511498992.

Rasmussen, J. (2010) ‘Cosmological Arguments from Contingency’, Philosophy Compass, vol. 5, no. 9, pp. 806–819.

Rota, M. and Baur, M. (2007) ‘Freedom, Will, and Nature’, Proceedings of the American Catholic Philosophical Association, vol. 81, pp. 109–122.

Rowe, W. (1997) ‘Circular Explanations, Cosmological Arguments, and Sufficient Reasons’, Midwest Studies in Philosophy, vol. 21, no. 1, pp. 188–201.

Rowe, W. L. (1998) The cosmological argument [Online], New York, Fordham Univ. Press. Available at http://www.loc.gov/catdir/enhancements/fy0833/98026709-b.html.

Sobel, J. H. (2004) Logic and theism: Arguments for and against beliefs in God, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press.

Stoljar, D. (2016) ‘Physicalism’, in Zalta, E. N. (ed) The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, 2016th edn, Metaphysics Research Lab, Stanford University.

Swinburne, R. (2004) The Existence of God, 2nd edn, Oxford, New York, Clarendon Press; Oxford University Press.

van Inwagen, P. (1983) An essay on Free Will, Oxford, Clarendon Press.

Downloads

Published

2017-06-19

How to Cite

Wahlberg, Mats. 2017. “A Cosmological Argument Against Physicalism”. European Journal for Philosophy of Religion 9 (2):165-88. https://doi.org/10.24204/ejpr.v9i2.1938.