جستجوی مقالات مرتبط با کلیدواژه "principle of simplicity" در نشریات گروه "فلسفه و کلام"

Philosophers, especially at the beginning of the era of philosophy, have made various arguments to explain the origin of existence. Allameh Tabatabai's argument of reality is among them. In this study, Swinburne's account of the simplicity principle is analyzed. Then, the principles and concepts postulated in the argument of reality are analyzed and examined based on the facets. What seems impressive in the argument of reality is brevity. In this research, an attempt has been made to answer two research questions: 1) Is it rational to consider the simplicity criterion in assessing the truth of a theory and its probability? Also, is the argument of reality in the viewpoint of Swinburne's simplicity principle, simpler than other arguments? Swinburne positively agrees with this view. He considers simplicity to be a fundamental a priori truth, and the criterion of the probability of an explanation.‘Simplicity’ is one of the fundamental concepts of epistemology. ‘Syntactic simplicity’ measures the number and brevity of the basic principles of a theory and its formulation, and ‘ontological simplicity’ measures the number of kinds of concepts postulated in a theory. William Ockham did not explicitly mention the principle of simplicity, but he is known for the famous term "Ockham's Razor". He does not consider the assumption of plurality without the necessity to be rational. Popper argued that a simple theory is easier to be falsified. According to Eliot Sober, simplicity is meaningful only if it is placed in a particular context. So, he proposes the principle of ‘parsimony’. According to David Lewis, the predicates and concepts that formulated a simple theory should refer to perfectly natural properties. Quine considers the tendency to prefer simple theories to be caused by ‘translogical features of human thought’ that tend the world to be simple. Swinburne argues it is an a priori ultimate epistemological principle that simplicity is evidence of truth. He considers simplicity to be the criterion of the probability of a theory and the evidence of the truth of that theory and suggests six facets in his account. Philosophically, the factors are 1) the number of concepts and principles postulated, 2) the number of kinds of concepts, 3) understanding the concepts postulated in a theory not to be entailed in understanding other concepts and principles, 4) a theory consisting of a few principles is simpler than one consisting of many principles, 5) a formulation of a theory in which principles relate to a few concepts is simpler rather than many concepts, and 6) a mathematical formulation is simpler.The principles and concepts postulated in the argument of reality are general and obvious in that their definition is literal, and they consist of the concept of eternal necessity and the concept of reality. The concept of reality takes precedence over the concept of the authenticity of existence and nature. In Allameh’s argument, from the beginning, the external reality is considered, regardless of whether that reality is an example of existence based on the authenticity of existence, or based on the authenticity of nature, it is an example of a contingent nature or a necessity nature, which does not make a difference in the completeness of the argument. Because it is enough to be clear that absolute reality exists unconditionally. This argument relies on the inviolable truth of the proposition that absolute reality necessarily exists. This brevity in the principles and concepts of the argument of reality makes it very compatible with the principle of simplicity and the facets that Swinburne enumerated in his account. According to Swinburne’s account, simplicity is a fundamental a priori truth. The Proposition "absolute reality necessarily exists" is a priori true and never accepts negation, and it always corresponds to a reality, either negatively or positively.The results of the present study show that, according to Swinburne's account, simplicity is the criterion of the probability of an explanation. In other words, if an explanation is a priori true, so the fundamental evidence for its truth is the simplicity of that explanation. Therefore, according to the correspondence theory of truth, it seems to be rational that the argument of reality is simpler and more probable than other arguments. In addition, it seems there is a correspondence in the argument of reality for each of the facets Swinburne enumerated for simplicity making it simpler than other arguments.

Quṭb al-Dīn Shīrāzī believed that according to Ptolemy in the introduction of Almagest, any entity that is not necessary for this astronomy should be omitted. This principle seems close to the definition of the notion of simplicity and parsimony in the philosophy of science. the phrase “omitting what is not necessary” is not mentioned explicitly in the Almagest. It seems that Isḥāq or Thābit added this phrase to the Arabic translation. The Islamic astronomers mentioned “simplicity” within their discussion of the solar model again and again and believed that a model with fewer orbs is acceptable for the sun because it is “simpler”. Nevertheless, the Maragha astronomers’ non-Ptolemaic models include more orbs than the number of the orbs in the Ptolemaic models. The non-Ptolemaic models were produced to solve the contradiction between Ptolemaic models and the Aristotelian natural principle of uniform motion. Although there were at least two other Aristotelian natural principles for the celestial motions which were in contrast with Ptolemaic models, Maragha astronomers did not pay attention to these contradictions. It is possible that they felt that supposing more orbs with uniform motion is simpler or more elegant than fewer orbs with non-uniform motion.

The argument from design for the existence of God has been considered by almost all religions and religious preachers. This is because of the persuasive power of this kind of argument. In the 18th century, Hume and some modern philosophers severely criticized the argument and the emergence of evolutionary views reinforced these criticisms. Recently, there has been a new version of the argument which presupposes the validity of evolutionary view and gives a consistent account of theism and theory of evolution. There are instances of this new effort among Christian and Muslim philosophers. Using physics, mathematics, biology, and complex probabilistic calculations, Richard Swinburne formed an inductive argument which claims that theism is consistent with the evolutionary viewpoint. Among Muslims, Murtiza Mutahhari not only believes in this consistency, but also maintains that the evolutionary viewpoint is the best interpretation of God’s purposefulness in the world. These two thinkers are different in respect of the level and form of their discussions, though the content and the results of their arguments seem akin.

Richard Swinburne is a one of those contemporary philosophers who refers to inductive reasoning to provide explanation for theism. Utilizing the principle of credulity and simplicity، and by distinguishing the temporal orders from spatial orders، he attempts to strengthen the probability of the God existence. Swinburne tries to answer to the limit-question by the hypothesis of theistic theology. Using concepts such as probability، simplicity، credulity، predictability، and temporal orders to support this hypothesis، his arguments face challenges. This article tries to evaluate those arguments from a critical point of view.

One of the most important points when dealing with religious experience is concerned with its epistemological valididty. Swinburne, a theist philosopher, is counted among those arguing for religious experience to be epistemologically valid. In his important works, the existence of God, establishing two principles of simplicity and evidence, has justified epistemological validity of the proof. As he argues, the two principles can be used in other kind of experiences. The paper has tried to study the principles.