More on the Argument from Design

Last week I wrote an entry about the "argument from design," and William James' negative view of it.

This week, prompted by a commenter there, I'll add some thoughts.

Close up of a clockwork Stock Photo - 9118127

I quoted James writing thus: "When one views the world with no definite theological bias one way or the other, one sees that order and disorder, as we now recognize them, are purely human inventions. We are interested in certain types of arrangement ... so interested that whenever we find them realized, the fact emphatically rivets our attention. The result is that we work over the contents of the world selectively."

Henry objected. He saw two arguments here, one on the assumption that order is an objective fact, the other on the denial of that assumption.

1) Assuming order is an objective fact, it is equally so that there is a lot of disorder too, which vitiates the proposed inference that there is an order-loving Creator.

2) But order isn't an objective fact, it is subjective, an invention of the human mind, and so again proves nothing about a supposed Creator.

Henry, seeing James' passage in this way, thought it unpersuasive. Although disorder poses a problem for certain conceptions of a God (an unqualifiedly order loving and omnipotent God) it isn't difficult to relax one or both of those assumptions and contend that the order that there is requires an intelligent being responsible for it.

As to the second point, Henry sees it simply as false. Order is a name for such objective facts as that the planets circle the sun on a regular path.

I see James as making one point here, not two, and the one is quite cogent. By way of review, consider that the 'argument from design' requires two steps. From order to design. Then from design to designer. Then as a first-order appraisal, ask yourself why we see order as the point needing explanation. Is some perfect state of disorder then a default universe? If so: why?

Note that the issue here is not the "first cause" argument or any variant. We aren't asking why any universe exists. That's another argument (addressed by James separately). The argument from design asks why this particular universe, one showing as much order as it does, is the one that exist.

So it is an appropriate riposte to say: given that some universe exists, why should it not be this one? Why should it not be a universe that combines order with disorder: some regular-looking solar systems and some rocks hurtling into them on very eccentric paths or from deepest space? Is some other sort of universe a background assumption whence this one departs?

It is the orderly aspect, as we humans define it, that "emphatically rivets our attention," and this gives the argument from design its spurious plausibility.

James also writes, explaining the matter further: "If I should throw down a thousand beans at random upon a table, I could doubtless, by eliminating a sufficient number of them, leave the rest in almost any geometrical pattern you might propose to me, and you might then say that that pattern was the thing prefigured beforehand, and that the other beans were mere irrelevance and packing material."

Surely the God in whom we are asked to believe, by those who propose the teleological argument, is not a God who has merely thrown beans onto a table at random.

I believe I've said enough to vindicate James' point against Henry's objections. I'll say a few words tomorrow about where this fits within the broader scheme of Jamesian thought.

A Story About Coleridge

This is a quote from a memoir by Dorothy Wordsworth, reflecting on a trip she took with two famous poets, her brother, William Wordsworth, and their similarly gifted companion, Samuel Taylor Coleridge. We sat upon a bench, placed for the sake of one of these views, whence we looked down upon the waterfall, and over the open country ... A lady and gentleman, more expeditious tourists than ourselves, came to the spot; they left us at the seat, and we found them again at another station above the Falls. Coleridge, who is always good-natured enough to enter into conversation with anybody whom he meets in his way, began to talk with the gentleman, who observed that it was a majestic waterfall. Coleridge was delighted with the accuracy of the epithet, particularly as he had been settling in his own mind the precise meaning of the words grand, majestic, sublime, etc., and had discussed the subject with William at some length the day before. “Yes, sir,” says Coleridge, “it is a maj...

Searle: The Chinese Room

John Searle has become the object of accusations of improper conduct. These accusations even have some people in the world of academic philosophy saying that instructors in that world should try to avoid teaching Searle's views. That is an odd contention, and has given rise to heated exchanges in certain corners of the blogosphere. At Leiter Reports, I encountered a comment from someone describing himself as "grad student drop out." GSDO said: " This is a side question (and not at all an attempt to answer the question BL posed): How important is John Searle's work? Are people still working on speech act theory or is that just another dead end in the history of 20th century philosophy? My impression is that his reputation is somewhat inflated from all of his speaking engagements and NYRoB reviews. The Chinese room argument is a classic, but is there much more to his work than that?" I took it upon myself to answer that on LR. But here I'll tak...

Recent Controversies Involving Nassim Taleb, Part I

I've written about Nassim Taleb on earlier occasions in this blog. I'll let you do the search yourself, dear reader, for the full background. The short answer to the question "who is Taleb?" is this: he is a 57 year old man born in Lebanon, educated in France, who has been both a hedge fund manager and a derivatives trader. He retired from active participation from the financial world sometime between 2004 and 2006, and has been a full-time writer and provocateur ever since. Taleb's writings for the general public began where one might expect -- in the field where he had made his money -- and he explained certain financial issues to a broad audiences in a very dramatic non-technical way. Since then, he has widened has fields of study, writing about just about everything, applying the intellectual tools he honed in that earlier work. As you might have gather from the above, I respect Taleb, though I have sometimes been critical of him when my own writing ab...

Jamesian Philosophy Refreshed

Search This Blog