♥ Ten of Hearts
the teleological family
The Argument from Beauty
Frederick Robert Tennant
Philosophical Theology, vol. II: The World, the Soul, and God (Philosophical Theology)
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 (P3 states the comparative principle)
- Concludes to
- Better explanation (nature's beauty; explanans is a mind that values beauty)
- Premise ground
- Epistemic (P3: what is to be expected from one cause and not another is better explained by the first)
- Modal strength
- None (comparative explanation)
- What it licenses
- Period
- Twentieth Century (1930)
- Tradition
- Empirical theism (British)
Further reading
- Source text, public domain
Philosophical Theology, vol. II: The World, the Soul, and Godphilosophicalthe0002tenn.pdf - A scholarly account
Read an exposition of the argument - A principal objection
Read the objection in full - Further reading
Swinburne, The Existence of God (1979), and von Balthasar, The Glory of the Lord.
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/beauty
© 2026 Athens & Jerusalem. All rights reserved.