The Cosmological Argument Essay

The Cosmological Argument is an a priori argument, seeking to establish the existence of a self-existent being through the Principle of Sufficient Reason (PSR), in order to then attempt to prove that that self-existent being is the “theist God” (48). In the Cosmological Argument, philosophers argued that the world’s foundation is based on the implicit relationship we have with the world and one another. Their arguments can be epitomized below:

(a) Every being (that exists or ever did exist) is either a dependent being or a self-existent being.

(b) Not every being can be a dependent being.

(c) Therefore, there exists a self-existing being, and that self-existing being is God. (49)

The Principle of Sufficient Reason (PSR) has two points: where the existence of any being requires an explanation (point (a)), and

Rowe describes that there may have never been a self-existent being, rather, an infinite collection of dependent existences. In this situation, every existence has a purpose, since those existences are only explained by the previous existences that resulted its existence initially (in point (a)) of PSR). Point (b) of PSR claims that the reason why this situation exists has an initial explanation, however, if only dependent beings have existed, then the circumstance will not have any purpose. Rowe says, “It won’t do to say that As have always been producing As--we can’t explain why there have always been As by saying that there have always been As” (51), where ‘As’ are compared to as dependent beings. Therefore, a self-existing being is the only reasonable explanation for the situation, and so premise (b) is true. Since premise (a) shows that only two kinds of existence (dependent or self-existent) occur, and since the previous comparison made proves that everything in that situation can’t be a dependent existence, then that means a self-existing being must be the only viable explanation