CHALLENGING COSMOLOGICAL ARGUMENTS
I should say that the universe is just there, and that’s all - Bertrand Russell
An example of this applies to chickens. Every individual chicken comes from an egg. But that doesn't mean all chickens must come from one giant egg. In the same way, just because everything in the universe has an explanation, it doesn't mean the universe has one giant explanation.
David Hume is attacking the validity of the Cosmological Arguments - especially the PSR which claims we can always demand an explanation of anything. |
Critics of Hume call his mistake the "Taxicab Fallacy". They say what Hume is doing is accepting the principle that you can look for explanations of things all the way - until we get to the universe itself. Then Hume changes his mind and jumps out, like a taxi customer jumping out of the cab before they're asked to pay the fare. But why not go all the way?
Science is not a taxi-cab that we can get in and out of whenever we like - Arthur Schopenhauer |