Evaluation
Eduqas A-Level Religious Studies A120QS
Christianity: Religious Figures and Sacred TextsChristianity
Christianity: Religious Concepts and Religious LifeChristianity
Christianity: Social and Historical Developments in Religious ThoughtChristianity
Christianity: Practices That Shape Religious IdentityChristianity
Islam: Religious Figures and Sacred TextsIslam
Islam: Religious Concepts and Religious LifeIslam
Islam: Social and Historical Developments in Religious ThoughtIslam
Islam: Practices That Shape Religious IdentityIslam
Judaism: Religious Figures and Sacred TextsJudaism
Judaism: Religious Concepts and Religious LifeJudaism
Judaism: Social and Historical Developments in Religious ThoughtJudaism
Judaism: Practices That Shape Religious IdentityJudaism
Buddhism: Religious Figures and Sacred TextsBuddhism
Buddhism: Religious Concepts and Religious LifeBuddhism
Buddhism: Social and Historical Developments in Religious ThoughtBuddhism
Buddhism: Practices That Shape Religious IdentityBuddhism
Hinduism: Religious Figures and Sacred TextsHinduism
Hinduism: Religious Concepts and Religious LifeHinduism
Topic overviewBrahman and atman: monism, dualism and the Vedanta schoolsThe Trimurti, cyclical time, Vaishnavism and ShaivismKarma, samsara and the goal of mokshaVarnashramadharma: the four varnas and four ashramasThe status of the Dalits: Gandhi, Ambedkar and afterAhimsa from Jain roots to Gandhi's satyagraha
Hinduism: Social and Historical Developments in Religious ThoughtHinduism
Hinduism: Practices That Shape Religious IdentityHinduism
Sikhism: Religious Figures and Sacred TextsSikhism
Topic overviewGuru Nanak's background and the influences on his teachingGuru Nanak's revelation, teachings and the community at KartarpurGuru Gobind Singh and the founding of the KhalsaThe Guru Granth Sahib as living GuruThe Mul Mantar and the Japji SahibGuru Arjan and the empire of Maharaja Ranjit Singh
Sikhism: Religious Concepts and Religious LifeSikhism
Sikhism: Social and Historical Developments in Religious ThoughtSikhism
Topic overviewKhalistan, persecution and the politics of the PunjabEquality of men and women in SikhismSikh attitudes to other faiths and interfaith dialogueSikhism, science and secularisationOrigins and development of the Sikh community in BritainMiri and piri, the kirpan and defending the oppressed
Sikhism: Practices That Shape Religious IdentitySikhism
Arguments for the Existence of God: Inductive
Arguments for the Existence of God: Deductive
The Problem of Evil and Suffering
Religious Belief as a Product of the Human Mind
Religious Experience
Topic overviewVisions and religious conversionMysticism, Teresa of Avila and the stages of prayerWilliam James's four marks and Otto's numinousChallenges to the authenticity of religious experienceThe value of religious experience for the individual and the communityDefining miracles and the Hume–Swinburne debate
Religious Language
Ethical Thought
Deontological Ethics
Topic overviewAquinas's four levels of law and the primary preceptsVirtues, goods and the moral act in AquinasNatural law applied: abortion and voluntary euthanasiaFinnis, the basic goods and practical reasonablenessHoose and the proportionalist debateFinnis and proportionalism applied: immigration and capital punishment
Teleological Ethics
Topic overviewFletcher's rejection of legalism and antinomianismThe working principles and the six propositionsSituation ethics applied: homosexual and polyamorous relationshipsBentham, utility and the hedonic calculusMill: higher pleasures, the harm principle and rulesUtilitarianism applied: animal experimentation and nuclear deterrence
Determinism
Arguments for the Existence of God: Deductive
- 4 subtopics
- 12 things to know
- Component 2
What Arguments for the Existence of God: Deductive covers
Arguments for the Existence of God: Deductive is examined in Component 2, Philosophy of Religion. It covers deductive proofs and Anselm's greatest possible being, necessary existence in Anselm and Norman Malcolm, Descartes's supremely perfect being and Gaunilo, Kant and challenges to the ontological argument.
The 4 subtopics
Each one has its own page.
- Deductive proofs and Anselm's greatest possible beingAnselm's definition of God and anselm's analogy of the painter.Open →
- Necessary existence in Anselm and Norman MalcolmThe second form of the argument, the difference between existing and existing necessarily, and the twentieth-century revival of both.Open →
- Descartes's supremely perfect beingDescartes's central claim about existence, descartes's triangle analogy and descartes's analogy of the mountain and the valley.Open →
- Gaunilo, Kant and challenges to the ontological argumentGaunilo's analogy of the lost island, gaunilo's point in using the island and kant's objection to the ontological argument.Open →
What you need to know
Answer each one before you reveal it.
Your recallNot started
Key term
What does Proslogion 3 claim about conceiving God's non-existence, and how does contingency differ?
Key term
What analogies does Descartes use for a property inseparable from a concept, and what do critics say they fail to show?
Who and when
Who was Gaunilo and what did he write?
Evaluation
What makes an argument deductive?
Evaluation
State the claim of Anselm's second form of the ontological argument.
Evaluation
How does Descartes define God in his version of the ontological argument?
Key term
Describe Gaunilo's analogy of the lost island.
Key term
Explain what the term 'a priori' means.
Evaluation
Set out Anselm's reasoning in the second form of the argument.
Numbers
In which work does Descartes give his ontological argument?
Key term
What is Gaunilo's point in using the island?
Take Arguments for the Existence of God: Deductive further
The same content, four other ways.
Commonly confused
Pairs that lose marks when they are blurred together.
Gaunilo's objection vs Kant's objection
Gaunilo's objection: a parody using a perfect island to show the reasoning proves too much. Kant's objection: An attack on the premise that existence adds anything to a concept.
Anselm's Proslogion 2 vs Anselm's Proslogion 3
Anselm's Proslogion 2: the chapter arguing that God exists in reality and not only in the mind. Anselm's Proslogion 3: The chapter arguing that God's non-existence cannot even be conceived.
Existence vs Necessary existence
Existence: a property Kant denies can be added to a concept. Necessary existence: A property Malcolm and Hartshorne argue can be added, because it is of a different kind.
Questions from this topic
Each one with the model answer underneath.
- 1
What makes an argument deductive?
Model answer
A deductive argument is valid when the conclusion follows necessarily from the premises. True premises in a valid form make the conclusion impossible to deny.
- 2
Explain what the term 'a priori' means.
Model answer
A priori knowledge is reached by reason alone, independently of sense experience. Analysis of concepts rather than observation does the work.
- 3
Why is the ontological argument classed as a priori and deductive?
Model answer
The argument works purely from the concept of God and needs no evidence from the world. Denial of the conclusion is said to involve a contradiction.
- 4
Where does Anselm set out his ontological argument?
Model answer
Anselm sets out the argument in the Proslogion, written around 1078. The work is addressed to God as a prayer rather than to a sceptic.
- 5
What did Anselm mean by 'faith seeking understanding'?
Model answer
Anselm begins from belief and uses reason to understand what he already accepts. Faith comes first and argument follows.
- 6
State Anselm's definition of God.
Model answer
God is that than which nothing greater can be conceived. Anselm treats the phrase as a definition every believer and unbeliever can grasp.
What is inside Levo
Six ways to work the same material.
Arguments for the Existence of God: Deductive revision questions
- What does Arguments for the Existence of God: Deductive cover in Eduqas A-Level Religious Studies?
- 4 subtopics: deductive proofs and anselm's greatest possible being, necessary existence in anselm and norman malcolm, descartes's supremely perfect being and gaunilo, kant and challenges to the ontological argument. Each one has its own page with questions and model answers.
- How is Arguments for the Existence of God: Deductive organised?
- By the Eduqas A120QS specification, subtopic by subtopic, so it matches the order you are taught it in.
Every question in Arguments for the Existence of God: Deductive, on a schedule.
Attempt a question from memory, write the correct version, then attempt it again. Levo records the jump between your first attempt and your last, and brings each question back on the day you are due to forget it.
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