{"agent_id":"paley","agent_name":"William Paley","slug":"the-design-argument","label":"The design argument: does the contrivance visible in organisms establish an intelligent designer, and does natural selection destroy the inference?","topic":"The design argument","question":"Does the contrivance visible in organisms establish an intelligent designer, and does natural selection destroy the inference?","position":"Contrivance — parts adjusted to one another for an end — cannot be accounted for by any principle we know except intention. The inference from contrivance to a contriver is not weakened by our never having witnessed the making, nor by imperfections, nor by parts whose use is undiscovered.","paragraphs":[[{"t":"Contrivance — parts adjusted to one another for an end — cannot be accounted for by any principle we know except intention.","n":[]},{"t":"The inference from contrivance to a contriver is not weakened by our never having witnessed the making, nor by imperfections, nor by parts whose use is undiscovered.","n":[1,2,3]}]],"texts":"*Natural Theology* (1802), chs. 1-5 (the watch, and the objections answered), ch. 3 (the eye and the telescope), chs. 6-23 (the anatomical evidence), ch. 26 (the goodness of the deity). Reception: Hume's *Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion* (1779), published before this book and never directly answered in it; Darwin's *Origin of Species* (1859) and his *Autobiography* on having been convinced by Paley as a student; Dawkins's *The Blind Watchmaker* (1986); Sober's and Elliott's work on the logic of the design inference.","works":["*Natural Theology* (1802), chs. 1-5 (the watch, and the objections answered), ch. 3 (the eye and the telescope), chs. 6-23 (the anatomical evidence), ch. 26 (the goodness of the deity)"],"reception":"Hume's *Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion* (1779), published before this book and never directly answered in it; Darwin's *Origin of Species* (1859) and his *Autobiography* on having been convinced by Paley as a student; Dawkins's *The Blind Watchmaker* (1986); Sober's and Elliott's work on the logic of the design inference.","status":"Universally taught as the classic statement and universally reported as having been answered by natural selection.","era":"1743-1805","discipline":"Philosophy, Theology","refs":[{"n":1,"work":"Natural Theology","page":"","canonical":"","quote":"It is as though an op¬ tician, when he had a nearer object to view, should rectify his instrument by putting in another glass, at the same time drawing out also his tube to a different length. Observe a new-born child first lifting Tap its eye¬ lids. What does the opening of the curtain dis¬ cover? The anterior part of two pellucid globes, B4 £8 APPLICATION OF THE ARGUMENT.","label":"Natural Theology"},{"n":2,"work":"Natural Theology","page":"","canonical":"","quote":"The argument from design remains as it was. Marks of design and contrivance are no more accounted for now, than they were before. In the same thing, we may ask for the cause of different properties. We may ask for the cause of the colour of a body, of its hardness, of its head; and these causes may be all different.","label":"Natural Theology"},{"n":3,"work":"The Principles of Moral and Political Philosophy","page":"","canonical":"","quote":"I* Digitized by LiOOQ IC 6* The Divine Benevolence* But either of these, and still more both of them, being too much to be attributed to accident, noth\": ing remains but the first supposition, that God, when / he created the human species, wished their happi- { ness, and made for them the provision which he has \\ made, with that vie'w, and for that purpose.","label":"The Principles of Moral and Political Philosophy"}],"answer":null,"siblings":[{"slug":"theological-utilitarianism","label":"Theological utilitarianism: is morality the will of God collected from expediency, and does the appeal to everlasting happiness make virtue merely prudent?"},{"slug":"miracles-and-testimony","label":"Miracles and testimony: can human witness establish a miracle against Hume's rule, and does the apostles' suffering count as evidence?"},{"slug":"the-state-of-the-poor","label":"The state of the poor: was Reasons for Contentment an argument, or a sermon addressed to the labouring poor on behalf of those who profited from their contentment?"}]}