Philosophy / Natural Theology • Existence of God • Intermediate
Argument from Causation
Primary question: Does the existence of efficient causes in the world point to a first, uncaused efficient cause?
Argument map
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Common mistakes
Don't say
Confusing this general causal argument with the Kalam argument's claim about a temporal beginning.
Instead
Recognize this version can be run hierarchically without any claim about the finitude of the past.
Don't say
Assuming the causal principle 'everything has a cause' includes the first cause itself.
Instead
Note the argument concludes to something uncaused, exempted from the principle by virtue of not being an effect at all.
Don't say
Treating the argument as proving the first cause is temporally prior.
Instead
Understand that in the hierarchical version, the first cause is ontologically, not temporally, prior.
What would change my mind? — Christian position
A demonstration that an infinite regress of caused causes is a complete and sufficient explanation of the causal order would remove the need for the argument's conclusion.
What would change my mind? — Skeptical position
An account showing why explaining every member of a causal series suffices to explain the series as a whole, without residual unexplained existence, would undercut the argument.
Why does this matter?
This argument matters as the most general and widely recognized form of cosmological reasoning, underlying much popular and philosophical God-talk, and serving as a bridge between the highly technical Thomistic Second Way and looser popular cosmological arguments, making clarity about its precise premises and scope especially important.
For further study
Primary and secondary sources on both sides of this question. Reading the strongest opposing case is part of the work, not a concession.
The Cosmological Argument — William L. Rowe
Balanced philosophical survey of causal and sufficient reason versions.
The Kalam Cosmological Argument — William Lane Craig
Develops a temporal causal argument distinct from the hierarchical version.
A Critique of the Cosmological Argument — Paul Edwards's essay in 'The Cosmological Argument: A Spectrum of Opinion'
Source of the influential regress-explanation objection.
An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding — David Hume
Classic skeptical treatment of causation relevant to premise one.