♥ Seven of Hearts
the teleological family
The Argument from the Balance of the Sexes
John Arbuthnot
An Argument for Divine Providence, taken from the constant Regularity observ'd in the Births of both Sexes (An Argument for Divine Providence)
EvidentialConcludes that a feature of the world is better explained by one hypothesis than by a named rival.
- Argument form
- Inference to the best explanation (chance eliminated by improbability; providence fits the size of the excess)
- Concludes to
- Better explanation (balance of the sexes; explanans is divine providence)
- Premise ground
- Epistemic (so long a run of majorities has vanishing probability under even chance)
- Modal strength
- None (comparative explanation)
- What it licenses
- Period
- Eighteenth Century (1710)
- Tradition
- Natural theology (probabilistic)
Further reading
- Source text, public domain
An Argument for Divine Providence, taken from the constant Regularity observ'd in the Births of both Sexesrstl.1710.0011.pdf - A scholarly account
Read an exposition of the argument - A principal objection
Read the objection in full
This formulation is ours, composed from the primary source and compressed to fit the card; the argument admits of other statements. Objections have been made to every argument in the deck; where one is linked above, it is chosen by us, not written by us.
ergocards.com/balance-of-the-sexes
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