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Six of Hearts
the teleological family

Argument from Contrivance in the Works of Nature

John Ray
The Wisdom of God Manifested in the Works of the Creation

Argument from Contrivance in the Works of Nature, card face
AnalogicalConcludes what a known parallel entitles us to infer.
Argument form
Argument from analogy (a fortiori: human contrivance to nature)
Concludes to
Intelligent agent (a maker of the whole frame of nature, exceeding any human maker in power and wisdom)
Premise ground
Empirical (fitting in things men make implies a maker; effects of a kind imply causes of a kind)
Modal strength
Actual
What it licenses
  • intelligence
  • power
  • wisdom
  • cause of the world (maker of its frame)
Period
Seventeenth Century (1691)
Tradition
Natural theology (physico-theology)

Further reading

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.

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