Philosophy of God (AP9210C)

Online on Demand (Asynchronous)

The lectures were recorded on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays of the following dates: 29 June; 1, 3, 6, 8, 10 July

Online students are expected to work their way through the lecture content (which includes worksheets and review of worksheets) at their own pace. These are available on the forum 'News from the lecturers 2026' on the ARK meta page. Online students do not have to submit worksheets, will not get further guidance on them beyond listening to the recording covering them.

Here is the list of topics covered:

• Introduction; Unit Guide. Premises and proofs. The classical taxonomy of the arguments – ontological, cosmological, teleological, moral proofs.

• Plato, Aristotle, Anselm. Ancient phil. and basic cosmological & teleological arguments Anselm’s 'ontological' (Proslogion) arguments, Gaunilo & Aquinas’ responses to Anselm’s argument

• Aquinas. The five ways (1) – motion, efficient cause, contingency and (possibly) John Duns Scotus’ argument for the existence of God

• Aquinas. The five ways (2) – full perfection, teleology

• Descartes’ and Leibniz’s ontological arguments. Introduction to Kant on the existence of God; background to Kant and Kant’s response to ontological arguments

• Clarke’s Boyle lectures; Paley’s teleological argument

• God and the problem(s) of evil (Lecturer: C Mulherin)

• Ockham’s, Hume’s and Kant’s critiques of the ‘traditional’ arguments for the existence of God

• A new realist-idealist argument for the existence of God (Dummett)

• The divine attributes: simplicity, timelessness, eternity and immutability