♣ Four of Clubs
the moral, experiential and pragmatic family
Argument from the Sense of Divinity
John Calvin
Institutio Christianae Religionis (Institutes of the Christian Religion)
DemonstrativeConcludes that something exists.
- Argument form
- Modus ponens (chained: consensus gentium premises establish that the conviction is implanted by nature; P5 carries nature to its author)
- Concludes to
- God as such (God exists, as the implanted conviction holds)
- Premise ground
- Empirical (a conviction universal, untaught and ineradicable is implanted by nature — consensus gentium)
- Modal strength
- Actual
- What it licenses
- Period
- Sixteenth Century (1559)
- Tradition
- Reformed
Further reading
- Source text, public domain
Institutio Christianae Religionisinstitutiochrist1559calv.pdf - A scholarly account
Read an exposition of the argument - A principal objection
Read the objection in full - Further reading
Cicero, De Natura Deorum (45 BC), states the consensus-gentium argument earlier; the card is composed from Calvin, Institutio I.3.1.
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/sense-of-divinity
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