ABSTRACT
There is no such thing as the cosmological argument. Rather, there are several arguments that all proceed from facts or alleged facts concerning causation, change, motion, contingency, or nitude in respect of the universe as a whole or processes within it. From them, and from general principles said to govern them, one is led to deduce or infer as highly probable the existence of a cause of the universe (as opposed, say, to a designer or a source of value). Such arguments have a venerable history. A cosmological argument from heavenly motion to a ‘world soul’ is found in Plato’s Laws, bk. 10. This kind of argument is given extended elaboration and defense by Aristotle, both in the Physics (bks. 7-8) and the Metaphysics (bk. 12 / lambda), where he argues for an ‘unmoved mover’ from the existence of motion within the cosmos (again, primarily astronomical). Cosmological arguments abound in medieval Arabic philosophy. There are arguments to the existence of a necessary cause of the universe from the existence of contingent beings (due to the falsafa (‘philosophy’) scholars, a school heavily in uenced by Greek thought) and arguments to the existence of a rst cause of the universe from the temporal nitude of the universe (due to the kalam (‘discourse’) scholars, a rival school of more traditional Qur’a¯nic theology) (Craig 1980: ch. 3). Defenders of the contingency argument include al-Farabi / Abu Nasr (c.870-950), Ibn Sina / Avicenna (980-1037), and Ibn Rushd / Averroes (1126-98). Supporters of what is now known as the kalam cosmological argument include al-Kindi (c.801/5-873) and al-Ghaza¯li¯ / Algazel (1058-1111). In Jewish philosophy, the gure standing head and shoulders above the rest is Rabbi Moses ben Maimon / Maimonides / Rambam (1135/8-1204). He proposed an elaborate form of Aristotle’s unmoved or ‘prime’ mover argument, based on an Aristotelian conception of the motion of the heavens, concluding: ‘This Prime Motor of the sphere is God, praised be His name!’ (Maimonides 1956: pt. II, ch. I). He also gave arguments from the existence of change and from contingency, among others.
