Newman’s Argument from Conscience: Why He Needs Paley and Natural Theology After All
American Catholic Philosophical Quarterly 94 (1):141-157 (2020)
Abstract
Recent authors, emphasizing Newman’s distaste for natural theology—especially William Paley’s design argument—have urged us to follow Newman’s lead and reject design arguments. But I argue that Newman’s own argument for God’s existence (his argument from conscience) fails without a supplementary design argument or similar reason to think our faculties are truth-oriented. In other words, Newman appears to need the kind of argument he explicitly rejects. Finding Newman’s rejection of natural theology to stem primarily from factors other than worries about cogency, however, I further argue that there is little reason not to pursue design arguments in order to save the argument from conscience.
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ISBN(s)
1051-3558
PhilPapers/Archive ID
GAGNAF-2
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2019-12-18
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2019-12-18
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138 ( #32,243 of 55,895 )
Recent downloads (6 months)
102 ( #5,903 of 55,895 )
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