The Transcendental Argument for the existence of God (TAG) is an

argument An argument is a series of sentences, statements, or propositions some of which are called premises and one is the conclusion. The purpose of an argument is to give reasons for one's conclusion via justification, explanation, and/or persu ...

that attempts to prove the

existence of God The existence of God is a subject of debate in the philosophy of religion and theology. A wide variety of arguments for and against the existence of God (with the same or similar arguments also generally being used when talking about the exis ...

by appealing to the necessary conditions for the possibility of

experience Experience refers to Consciousness, conscious events in general, more specifically to perceptions, or to the practical knowledge and familiarity that is produced by these processes. Understood as a conscious event in the widest sense, experience i ...

and

knowledge Knowledge is an Declarative knowledge, awareness of facts, a Knowledge by acquaintance, familiarity with individuals and situations, or a Procedural knowledge, practical skill. Knowledge of facts, also called propositional knowledge, is oft ...

. A version was formulated by

Immanuel Kant Immanuel Kant (born Emanuel Kant; 22 April 1724 – 12 February 1804) was a German Philosophy, philosopher and one of the central Age of Enlightenment, Enlightenment thinkers. Born in Königsberg, Kant's comprehensive and systematic works ...

in his 1763 work '' The Only Possible Argument in Support of a Demonstration of the Existence of God.''

C. S. Lewis Clive Staples Lewis (29 November 1898 – 22 November 1963) was a British writer, literary scholar and Anglican lay theologian. He held academic positions in English literature at both Magdalen College, Oxford (1925–1954), and Magdalen ...

's argument from reason is also a kind of transcendental argument. Most contemporary formulations of a transcendental argument for God have been developed within the framework of

Christian A Christian () is a person who follows or adheres to Christianity, a Monotheism, monotheistic Abrahamic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus in Christianity, Jesus Christ. Christians form the largest religious community in the wo ...

presuppositional apologetics Presuppositional apologetics, shortened to presuppositionalism, is an Epistemology, epistemological school of Christian apologetics that examines the presuppositions on which worldviews are based, and invites comparison and contrast between the res ...

and the likes of Cornelius Van Til and Greg Bahnsen.

Transcendental reasoning

"Transcendental" in this case is used as an adjective specifying a specific kind of argument, and not a noun. Transcendental arguments should not be confused with arguments for the existence of something transcendent. Rather, transcendental arguments are arguments that make inferences from the ability to think and experience. So-called ''progressive'' transcendental arguments begin with an apparently indubitable and universally accepted statement about people's experiences of the world. They use this to make substantive knowledge-claims about the world, e.g., that it ''is'' causally and spatiotemporally related. They start with what is left at the ''end'' of the skeptic's process of doubting. Progressive transcendental arguments take the form of

modus ponens In propositional logic, (; MP), also known as (), implication elimination, or affirming the antecedent, is a deductive argument form and rule of inference. It can be summarized as "''P'' implies ''Q.'' ''P'' is true. Therefore, ''Q'' must ...

with modal operators: :If possibly ''P'', then necessarily ''Q''. :Actually ''P''. :Therefore, necessarily ''Q''. ''Regressive'' transcendental arguments, on the other hand, ''begin at the same point'' as the skeptic, e.g., the fact that we have experience of a causal and spatiotemporal world, and show that certain notions are implicit in our conceptions of such experience. Regressive transcendental arguments are more conservative in that they do not purport to make substantive ontological claims about the world. Regressive transcendental arguments take the form of

modus tollens In propositional logic, ''modus tollens'' () (MT), also known as ''modus tollendo tollens'' (Latin for "mode that by denying denies") and denying the consequent, is a deductive argument form and a rule of inference. ''Modus tollens'' is a m ...

with modal operators: :If possibly ''P'', then necessarily ''Q''. :Actually not ''Q''. :Therefore, necessarily not ''P''. They are also sometimes said to be distinct from standard

deductive Deductive reasoning is the process of drawing valid inferences. An inference is valid if its conclusion follows logically from its premises, meaning that it is impossible for the premises to be true and the conclusion to be false. For example, th ...

and inductive forms of

reason Reason is the capacity of consciously applying logic by drawing valid conclusions from new or existing information, with the aim of seeking the truth. It is associated with such characteristically human activities as philosophy, religion, scien ...

ing, although this has been disputed, for instance by Anthony Genova and Graham Bird.

The argument

There are many versions of the transcendental argument for the existence of God (both progressive and regressive), but they generally proceed as follows: # If there is a transcendental unity of apperception, God exists. # There is a transcendental unity of apperception. # Therefore, God exists. The transcendental unity of apperception refers to the combination of different impressions, experiences and categories into a single, intelligible

consciousness Consciousness, at its simplest, is awareness of a state or object, either internal to oneself or in one's external environment. However, its nature has led to millennia of analyses, explanations, and debate among philosophers, scientists, an ...

held by a

person A person (: people or persons, depending on context) is a being who has certain capacities or attributes such as reason, morality, consciousness or self-consciousness, and being a part of a culturally established form of social relations suc ...

. It is argued that the negation of the existence of God therefore entails the impossibility of knowledge, which is self-refuting. The TAG differs from

thomistic Thomism is the philosophical and theological school which arose as a legacy of the work and thought of Thomas Aquinas (1225–1274), the Dominican philosopher, theologian, and Doctor of the Church. In philosophy, Thomas's disputed questions ...

and

evidentialist Evidentialism is a thesis in epistemology which states that one is justified to believe something if and only if that person has evidence which supports said belief. Evidentialism is, therefore, a thesis about which beliefs are justified and whic ...

arguments, which presuppose the validity of human perception and judgement when proving the existence of God.

Ash'ari

Medieval

Ash'ari Ash'arism (; ) is a school of theology in Sunni Islam named after Abu al-Hasan al-Ash'ari, a Shāfiʿī jurist, reformer (''mujaddid''), and scholastic theologian, in the 9th–10th century. It established an orthodox guideline, based on ...

Islamic theologians formulated a type of transcendental argument based on the notion that morality, logic, etc. cannot be fully understood apart from revelation and thereby, belief in the

Quran The Quran, also Romanization, romanized Qur'an or Koran, is the central religious text of Islam, believed by Muslims to be a Waḥy, revelation directly from God in Islam, God (''Allah, Allāh''). It is organized in 114 chapters (, ) which ...

and the Islamic truth claims were necessary in order to interpret the external world. For al-Ashari and others, it does not make sense to argue against religion using a priori assumptions about morality or scientific probabilities when these can only be understood in light of divine revelation.

Criticism

Barry Stroud has criticized transcendental arguments, distinguishing between epistemic (what we must presuppose) and metaphysical (what actually exists) transcendental arguments. Stroud argues that transcendental arguments often only establish the former but assert the latter, so TAG, as a metaphysical transcendental argument, can only establish that human thought presupposes logic, science, and morality, but attempting to ground them in something beyond human thought, such as God, ultimately fails.

Presuppositional apologetics

Internet Infidels co-founder Jeffery Jay Lowder has argued that the presuppositional apologetics' version of TAG is fatally flawed for numerous reasons. First, Bahnsen fails to defend the ''necessity'' of Christianity instead of the mere ''sufficiency'' for the rational justification of the laws of logic, the

laws of science Scientific laws or laws of science are statements, based on repeated experiments or observations, that describe or predict a range of natural phenomena. The term ''law'' has diverse usage in many cases (approximate, accurate, broad, or narrow) ...

, and the laws of morality. In other words, such reasoning affirms the consequent. Second, Bahnsen conflates "

atheism Atheism, in the broadest sense, is an absence of belief in the Existence of God, existence of Deity, deities. Less broadly, atheism is a rejection of the belief that any deities exist. In an even narrower sense, atheism is specifically the ...

" with "

materialism Materialism is a form of monism, philosophical monism according to which matter is the fundamental Substance theory, substance in nature, and all things, including mind, mental states and consciousness, are results of material interactions. Acco ...

" and has really presented an argument against materialism, not an argument for Christianity. Third, Bahnsen believed that the laws of logic, laws of science, and laws of morality are

abstract objects In philosophy and the arts, a fundamental distinction exists between abstract and concrete entities. While there is no universally accepted definition, common examples illustrate the difference: numbers, sets, and ideas are typically classified ...

, but Christianity arguably underdetermines the relationship between God and abstract objects. Some Christian philosophers, such as Peter van Inwagen, affirm

Platonism Platonism is the philosophy of Plato and philosophical systems closely derived from it, though contemporary Platonists do not necessarily accept all doctrines of Plato. Platonism has had a profound effect on Western thought. At the most fundam ...

and the compatibility of God and abstract objects. But other Christian philosophers argue that Platonism is incompatible with divine aseity.

William Lane Craig William Lane Craig (; born August 23, 1949) is an American Analytic philosophy, analytic philosopher, Christian apologetics, Christian apologist, author, and theologian. He is a professor of philosophy at Houston Christian University and at the T ...

urges Christian philosophers to consider anti-realist theories of abstract objects.God Over All, by William Lane Craig

References

;Notes *E. R. Geehan, ed., ''Jerusalem and Athens: Critical Discussions on the Philosophy and Apologetics of Cornelius Van Til'' (Phillipsburg: Presbyterian and Reformed, 1980). *Greg L. Bahnsen, ''Van Til's Apologetic: Readings and Analysis'' (Phillipsburg: Presbyterian and Reformed, 1998). *John M. Frame, ''Cornelius Van Til: An Analysis of His Thought'' (Phillipsburg: Presbyterian and Reformed, 1995). *Steven M. Schlissel, ed., ''The Standard Bearer: A Festschrift for Greg L. Bahnsen'' (Nacogdoches: Covenant Media Press, 2002). *Greg L. Bahnsen, ''Always Ready: Directions for Defending the Faith". Robert R. Booth, ed. (Nacogdoches: Covenant Media Press, 1996). *John M. Frame, ''Apologetics to the Glory of God: An Introduction'' (Phillipsburg: Presbyterian and Reformed, 1994). *John M. Frame, ''The Doctrine of the Knowledge of God'' (Phillipsburg: Presbyterian and Reformed, 1987).

External links

Articles

Derrida, Van Til and the Metaphysics of Postmodernism
An appraisal of Postmodernism, specifically Deconstruction, in light of Van Til by Jacob Gabriel Hale.

Debates

"The Great Debate: Does God Exist?"
Audio (listen/download format) of a formal debate between Christian Greg Bahnsen and skeptic Gordon Stein from the

University of California, Irvine The University of California, Irvine (UCI or UC Irvine) is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Irvine, California, United States. One of the ten campuses of the University of California system, U ...

. *
The Verdict Is In: Assessment of the 1985 Bahnsen-Stein Debate, 'Does God Exist?
" Video (watch/download format) of the Bahnsen-Stein debate, beginning with a technical and rhetorical assessment of Bahnsen's opening statement in which he defends his transcendental argument for God's existence.
The Martin-Frame Debate
A written debate between skeptic Michael Martin and Christian John Frame about the transcendental argument for the existence of God.
The Drange-Wilson Debate
A written debate between skeptic Theodore Drange and Christian Douglas Wilson.
"Is Non-Christian Thought Futile?"
A written debate between Christian Doug Jones and skeptics Keith Parsons and Michael Martin in ''Antithesis'' magazine (vol. 2, no. 4). {{DEFAULTSORT:Transcendental Argument For The Existence Of God Christian apologetics Christian philosophy Arguments for the existence of God