The
watchmaker analogy, or watchmaker
argument* In logic, an argument is a set of one or more meaningful declarative sentences known as the premises along with another meaningful declarative sentence known as the conclusion...
, is a
teleological argumentA teleological argument, or argument from design, is an argument for the existence of God or a creator based on perceived evidence of order, purpose, design, or direction — or some combination of these — in nature. The word "teleological" is derived from the Greek word telos, meaning "end" or...
for the
existence of GodArguments for and against the existence of God have been proposed by scientists, philosophers, theologians, and others. In philosophical terminology, "existence-of-God" arguments concern schools of thought on the epistemology of the ontology of God....
. By way of an
analogyAnalogy is a cognitive process of transferring information from a particular subject to another particular subject , and a linguistic expression corresponding to such a process...
, the argument states that design implies a designer. The analogy has played a prominent role in
natural theologyNatural theology is a branch of theology based on reason and ordinary experience. Thus it is distinguished from revealed theology which is based on scripture and religious experiences of various kinds; and also from transcendental theology, theology from a priori reasoning.Marcus Terentius Varro ...
and the "argument from design," where it was used to support arguments for the existence of
GodGod is a deity in theistic and deistic religions and other belief systems, representing either the sole deity in monotheism, or a principal deity in polytheism....
and for the
intelligent designIntelligent design is the assertion that "certain features of the universe and of living things are best explained by an intelligent cause, not an undirected process such as natural selection." It is a modern form of the traditional teleological argument for the existence of God, but one which...
of the universe.
The most famous statement of the
teleological argumentA teleological argument, or argument from design, is an argument for the existence of God or a creator based on perceived evidence of order, purpose, design, or direction — or some combination of these — in nature. The word "teleological" is derived from the Greek word telos, meaning "end" or...
using the watchmaker analogy was given by
William PaleyWilliam Paley was a British Christian apologist, philosopher, and utilitarian. He is best known for his exposition of the teleological argument for the existence of God in his work Natural Theology, which made use of the watchmaker analogy .-Life:Born in Peterborough, England, Paley was educated...
in 1802. In 1838,
Charles DarwinCharles Robert Darwin FRS was an English naturalist who realised and presented compelling evidence that all species of life have evolved over time from common ancestors, through the process he called natural selection...
's formulation of the theory of
natural selectionNatural selection is the process by which heritable traits that make it more likely for an organism to survive and successfully reproduce become more common in a population over successive generations...
was seen as providing a counter-argument to the Watchmaker analogy. In the United States, starting in the 1980s, the concepts of evolution and natural selection became the subject of national debate, including a renewed interest in the watchmaker argument by both popular atheists and the
intelligent design movementThe intelligent design movement is a neo-creationist religious campaign for broad social, academic and political change to promote and support the idea of "intelligent design." Its chief activities are a campaign to promote public awareness of this concept, the lobbying of policymakers to include...
.
The Watchmaker argument
The watchmaker analogy consists of the comparison of some natural phenomenon to a
watchA watch is a timepiece that is made to be worn on a person. It is usually a wristwatch, worn on the wrist with a strap or bracelet. In addition to the time, modern watches often display the day, date, month and year, and electronic watches may have many other functions.Most inexpensive and...
. Typically, the analogy is presented as a prelude to the
teleological argumentA teleological argument, or argument from design, is an argument for the existence of God or a creator based on perceived evidence of order, purpose, design, or direction — or some combination of these — in nature. The word "teleological" is derived from the Greek word telos, meaning "end" or...
and is generally presented as:
- The complex inner workings of a watch necessitate an intelligent designer.
- As with a watch, the complexity of X (a particular organ or organism, the structure of the solar system, life, the entire universe) necessitates a designer.
In this presentation, the watch analogy (step 1) does not function as a premise to an argument — rather it functions as a rhetorical device and a preamble. Its purpose is to establish the plausibility of the general premise:
you can tell, simply by looking at something, whether or not it was the product of intelligent design.
In most formulations of the argument, the characteristic that indicates intelligent design is left implicit. In some formulations, the characteristic is
orderliness or
complexity (which is a form of order). In other cases it is
clearly being designed for a purpose, where
clearly is usually left undefined.
William Paley
As complicated technology, watches and timepieces were used as examples in philosophical discussions throughout history.
CiceroMarcus Tullius Cicero was a Roman philosopher, statesman, lawyer, political theorist, and Roman constitutionalist. Cicero is widely considered one of Rome's greatest orators and prose stylists.Cicero is generally perceived to be one of the most versatile minds of ancient Rome...
,
VoltaireFrançois-Marie Arouet , better known by the pen name Voltaire, was a French Enlightenment writer, essayist, and philosopher known for his wit and his defense of civil liberties, including both freedom of religion and free trade.Voltaire was a prolific writer and produced works in almost every...
and
René DescartesRené Descartes , , also known as Renatus Cartesius , was a French philosopher, mathematician, physicist, and writer who spent most of his adult life in the Dutch Republic...
, for example, used timepieces in arguments regarding purpose. The watchmaker analogy, as described here, was used by
FontenelleBernard le Bovier de Fontenelle, also referred to as Bernard le Bouyer de Fontenelle was a French author....
in 1686, but was most famously formulated by Paley.
William PaleyWilliam Paley was a British Christian apologist, philosopher, and utilitarian. He is best known for his exposition of the teleological argument for the existence of God in his work Natural Theology, which made use of the watchmaker analogy .-Life:Born in Peterborough, England, Paley was educated...
(1743–1805) used the watchmaker analogy in his book
Natural Theology, or Evidences of the Existence and Attributes of the Deity collected from the Appearances of Nature, published in 1802. In it, Paley wrote that if a
pocket watchA pocket watch is a watch that is made to be carried in a pocket, as opposed to a wristwatch, which is strapped to the wrist. They were the most common type of watch from their development in the 16th century until wristwatches became popular after World War I...
is found on a heath, it is most reasonable to assume that someone dropped it and that it was made by one or more watchmakers, and not by natural forces.
Paley went on to argue that the complex structures of living things and the remarkable adaptations of plants and animals required an intelligent designer. He believed the natural world was the creation of God and showed the nature of the creator. According to Paley, God had carefully designed "even the most humble and insignificant organisms" and all of their minute features (such as the
wingA wing is a surface used to produce lift for flight through the air or another gaseous or fluid medium. The wing shape is usually an airfoil. The word originally referred only to the foremost limbs of birds, but has been extended to include the wings of insects , bats, pterosaurs, and aircraft.A...
s and
antennaeAntennae in biology have historically been paired appendages used for sensing in arthropods and crustaceans. More recently, the term has also been applied to cilium structures present in many cell types of eukaryotes....
of
earwig Earwig is the common name given to the insect order Dermaptera, characterized by membranous wings folded underneath short forewings, hence the literal translation of the order being "skin wings". The abdomen extends beyond the wings, and frequently ends in a pair of forceps-like structures called...
s). He believed therefore that God must care even more for humanity.
Paley recognised that there is great suffering in nature, and that nature appears to be indifferent to pain. His way of reconciling this with his belief in a
benevolentOmnibenevolence is defined by the Oxford English Dictionary as "unlimited or infinite benevolence". It is sometimes held to be impossible for a deity to exhibit this property along with both omniscience and omnipotence, because of the problem of evil...
God was to assume that life had more pleasure than pain.
(See Problem of EvilIn the philosophy of religion and theology, the problem of evil is the question of whether evil exists and, if so, why. The question particularly arises in religions that propose the existence of a deity who is omnibenevolent while simultaneously also being omnipotent, and omniscient; attempts to...
).
As a side note, a charge of wholesale
plagiarismPlagiarism, as defined in the 1995 Random House Compact Unabridged Dictionary, is the "use or close imitation of the language and thoughts of another author and the representation of them as one's own original work." Within academia, plagiarism by students, professors, or researchers is considered...
from this book was brought against Paley in
The AthenaeumThe Athenaeum was a literary magazine published in London from 1828 to 1921. It had a reputation for publishing the very best writers of the age....
for 1848, but the famous illustration of the watch was not peculiar to Nieuwentyt, and had been used by many others before either Paley or Nieuwentyt.
Criticism
There are three main arguments against the Watchmaker analogy. The first is that complex artifacts do not, in fact, require a designer, but can and do arise from "mindless" natural processes (as in the "monkeys with typewriters" analogy). The second argument is that the watch is a faulty analogy. The third argument is that the watchmaker is arguably a far more complex organism than the watch, and if complexity proves intelligent design, then the question arises: who created God?
David Hume
Hume gave the classic criticism of the design argument in
Dialogues concerning Natural ReligionDialogues Concerning Natural Religion is a philosophical work written by the Scottish philosopher David Hume. Through dialogue, three fictional characters named Demea, Philo, and Cleanthes debate the nature of God's existence...
and
An Enquiry concerning Human UnderstandingAn Enquiry concerning Human Understanding is a book by the Scottish empiricist philosopher David Hume, published in 1748. It was a simplification of an earlier effort, Hume's A Treatise of Human Nature, published anonymously in London in 1739–40...
. He argued that for the design argument to be feasible, it must be true that order and purpose are observed only when they result from design. But order is observed regularly, resulting from presumably mindless processes like snowflake or crystal generation. Design accounts for only a tiny part of our experience with order and "purpose".
Furthermore, the design argument is based on an incomplete analogy: because of our experience with objects, we can recognize human-designed ones, comparing for example a pile of stones and a brick wall. But to point to a designed Universe, we would need to have an experience of a range of different universes. As we only experience one, the analogy cannot be applied. We must ask therefore if it is right to compare the world to a machine — as in Paley's watchmaker argument — when perhaps it would be better described as a giant inert animal. Even if the design argument is completely successful, it could not (in and of itself) establish a robust theism; one could easily reach the conclusion that the universe's configuration is the result of some morally ambiguous, possibly unintelligent agent or agents whose method bears only a remote similarity to human design. In this way it could be asked if the designer was God, or further still, who designed the designer?
Hume also reasoned that if a well-ordered natural world requires a special designer, then God's mind (being so well-ordered) also requires a special designer. And then this designer would likewise need a designer, and so on ad infinitum. We could respond by resting content with an inexplicably self-ordered divine mind but then why not rest content with an inexplicably self-ordered natural world?
Charles Darwin
Charles DarwinCharles Robert Darwin FRS was an English naturalist who realised and presented compelling evidence that all species of life have evolved over time from common ancestors, through the process he called natural selection...
's theory provided another explanation for complex artifacts, one where a design is not necessary.
When
Charles DarwinCharles Robert Darwin FRS was an English naturalist who realised and presented compelling evidence that all species of life have evolved over time from common ancestors, through the process he called natural selection...
(1809–1882)
completed his studiesCharles Darwin's education gave him a foundation in the doctrine of Creation prevalent throughout the West at the time, as well as knowledge of medicine and theology. More significantly, it led to his interest in natural history, which culminated in his taking part in the second voyage of the...
of
theologyThe term "theology" literally means the study of God, deriving from the Greek word theos, meaning 'God', and the suffix -ology from the Greek word logos meaning "discourse", "theory", or "reasoning"...
at
Christ's College, CambridgeChrist's College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge.With a reputation for high academic standards, Christ's College has consistently finished in the top ten colleges in the Tompkins Table in recent years.-College history:...
in 1831, he read Paley's
Natural Theology and believed that the work gave rational proof of the
existence of GodArguments for and against the existence of God have been proposed by scientists, philosophers, theologians, and others. In philosophical terminology, "existence-of-God" arguments concern schools of thought on the epistemology of the ontology of God....
. This was because living beings showed complexity and were exquisitely fitted to their places in a happy world.
Subsequently, on
the voyage of the BeagleThe second voyage of HMS Beagle from 27 December 1831 to 2 October 1836 was the second survey expedition of HMS Beagle, under captain Robert FitzRoy who had taken over command of the ship on its first voyage after her previous captain committed suicide...
, Darwin found that nature was not so beneficent, and the distribution of
speciesIn biology, a species is:* a taxonomic rank or* a unit at that rank ....
did not support ideas of divine creation. In 1838, shortly after his return, Darwin
conceived his theoryThe inception of Darwin's theory occurred during an intensively busy period which began when Charles Darwin returned from the survey voyage of the Beagle, with his reputation as a fossil collector and geologist already established...
that
natural selectionNatural selection is the process by which heritable traits that make it more likely for an organism to survive and successfully reproduce become more common in a population over successive generations...
, rather than divine design, was the best explanation for gradual change in populations over many generations.
Darwin reviewed the implications of this finding in his autobiography:
The idea that nature was governed by laws was already common, and in 1833
William WhewellWilliam Whewell was an English polymath, scientist, Anglican priest, philosopher, theologian, and historian of science. His surname is .-Life and career:Whewell was born in Lancaster, England...
as a proponent of the
natural theologyNatural theology is a branch of theology based on reason and ordinary experience. Thus it is distinguished from revealed theology which is based on scripture and religious experiences of various kinds; and also from transcendental theology, theology from a priori reasoning.Marcus Terentius Varro ...
that Paley had inspired had written that "with regard to the material world, we can at least go so far as this—we can perceive that events are brought about not by insulated interpositions of Divine power, exerted in each particular case, but by the establishment of general laws." By the time Darwin published his theory,
liberal theologiansLiberal Christianity, sometimes called liberal theology, is an umbrella term covering diverse, philosophically informed religious movements and ideas within Christianity from the late 18th century and onwards...
were already supporting such ideas, and by the late 19th century their modernist approach was predominant in theology. In science,
evolutionIn biology, evolution is change in the genetic material of a population of organisms from one generation to the next. Though changes produced in any one generation are normally small, differences accumulate with each generation and can, over time, cause substantial changes in the population, a...
theory incorporating Darwin's natural selection became completely accepted.
Richard Dawkins
Dawkins also gives an explanation for complex artifacts, one where a design is not necessary.
Dawkins demonstrates through computer simulation that "highly complex" systems can be produced by a series of very small randomly-generated yet
naturally selectedNatural selection is the process by which heritable traits that make it more likely for an organism to survive and successfully reproduce become more common in a population over successive generations...
steps, rather than an intelligent designer.
He further points out the self-refuting nature of the argument: that if complex things must have been intelligently designed by something more complex than themselves, then anything posited as this complex designer (i.e. God) must also have been designed by something yet more complex.
In a Horizon episode also entitled
The Blind Watchmaker, Dawkins described Paley's argument "as mistaken as it is elegant". In both contexts he saw Paley as having made an incorrect proposal as to a certain problem's solution, but did not disrespect him for this. In his essay
The big bang,
Steven PinkerSteven Arthur Pinker is a Canadian-American experimental psychologist, cognitive scientist, and author of popular science...
discussed Dawkins' coverage of Paley's argument, adding: "Biologists today do not disagree with Paley's laying out of the problem. They disagree only with his solution."
In his book,
The God Delusion, Dawkins argues that life was the result of complex biological processes. Dawkins makes the argument that the comparison to the lucky construction of a watch is fallacious because evolutionists do not consider evolution "lucky". He tells the reader that evolutionists consider the evolution of human life the result of millions of years of natural selection. He therefore concludes, evolution is a fair contestant to replace God in the role of watchmaker.
Mandelbrot Analogy
A similar objection is coined as the
MandelbrotMandelbrot, may refer to:* Benoît Mandelbrot , a mathematician associated with fractal geometry, coined the term fractal* Mandelbrot set, a fractal popularized by Benoît Mandelbrot* Mandelbrot Competition, a math competition...
Analogy. It relies on the observation that some complex patterns and behaviours, such as those seen in fractals and
chaotical systemsChaos typically refers to a state lacking order or predictability. In ancient Greece, it referred to the initial state of the universe, and, by extension, space, darkness, or an abyss...
, arise naturally from simple systems. Therefore, the complexity of something is not a valid argument for the necessity of a designer.
Faulty Analogy
Criticisms have found fault in the watch, or the alternatively 'eye', analogy. Anthropologists Richerson and Boyd argue that one human could not make a watch on their own and therefore a watch does not have a designer. The book
Plato and a Platypus Walk Into a BarPlato and a Platypus Walk Into a Bar – Understanding Philosophy Through Jokes is a book that explains basic philosophical concepts through classic jokes. Thomas Cathcart and Daniel Klein, graduates of Harvard in philosophy, collaborated on the book...
argues that there is no reason why the Universe resembles a watch any more than it does a baby kangaroo, which is created by two other kangaroos having sex, and that the same question can be asked of any god. And a watch is manufactured out of other materials, while the case with the Universe is unclear.
Creationist revival of the analogy
In the early 20th century the modernist theology of
higher criticismHistorical criticism or higher criticism is a branch of literary analysis that investigates the origins of a text: as applied in biblical studies it investigates the books of the Bible and compares them to other texts written at the same time, before, or recently after the text in question...
was contested in the United States by
Biblical literalistsBiblical literalism is the interpretation or translation of the explicit and primary sense of words in the Bible. A literal, Biblical interpretation is associated with the fundamentalist and evangelical hermeneutical approach to Scripture, and is used by most conservative Christians today...
who campaigned successfully against the teaching of evolution and began calling themselves
CreationistsCreationism refers to the religious belief that humanity, life, the Earth, and the universe were created in some form by a supernatural being or beings, commonly a single deity...
in the 1920s. When teaching of evolution was reintroduced into
public schoolsIn most of the world, excluding England and Wales and some Commonwealth countries, a public school is an educational institution that is funded with tax revenue and most commonly administered by a local government or government agency...
in the 1960s they adopted what they called
creation scienceCreation science or scientific creationism is the movement within creationism which attempts to provide support for the religious account of creation according to Genesis, and disprove accepted scientific facts, theories and scientific paradigms about the history of the Earth, cosmology and...
which had a central concept of design in similar terms to Paley's argument. That idea was then relabelled
intelligent designIntelligent design is the assertion that "certain features of the universe and of living things are best explained by an intelligent cause, not an undirected process such as natural selection." It is a modern form of the traditional teleological argument for the existence of God, but one which...
which presents the same analogy as an argument against evolution by natural selection without explicitly stating that the "intelligent designer" was God. The argument from the complexity of biological organisms was now presented as the
irreducible complexityIrreducible complexity is an argument by proponents of intelligent design that certain biological systems are too complex to have evolved from simpler, or "less complete" predecessors, through natural selection acting upon a series of advantageous naturally occurring chance mutations...
argument.
The watchmaker analogy was referenced in the 2005
Kitzmiller v. Dover Area School DistrictTammy Kitzmiller, et al. v. Dover Area School District, et al., Case No. 04cv2688, was the first direct challenge brought in the United States federal courts against a public school district that required the presentation of intelligent design as an alternative to evolution as an "explanation of...
trial. Throughout the trial, the Reverend William Paley was mentioned several times, naming Paley the "posterboy" of
Intelligent DesignIntelligent design is the assertion that "certain features of the universe and of living things are best explained by an intelligent cause, not an undirected process such as natural selection." It is a modern form of the traditional teleological argument for the existence of God, but one which...
.
The defense's expert witness
John HaughtDr. John F. Haught is a Roman Catholic theologian and Senior Research Fellow at the Woodstock Theological Center at Georgetown University. His area of expertise is systematic theology, with a special interest in issues of science, cosmology, ecology, and reconciling evolution and religion.Haught...
noted that both
Intelligent DesignIntelligent design is the assertion that "certain features of the universe and of living things are best explained by an intelligent cause, not an undirected process such as natural selection." It is a modern form of the traditional teleological argument for the existence of God, but one which...
and the watchmaker analogy are both "reformulations" of the same theological argument..
On day 21 of the trial, Mr. Harvey walked Dr. Minnich through a modernized version of Paley's argument, substituting a cell phone for the watch.
.
In his ruling, the judge stated that the use of the argument from design by intelligent design proponents "is merely a restatement of the Reverend William Paley's argument applied at the cell level" and that the argument from design is
subjectiveSubjectivity refers to a person's perspective or opinion, particular feelings, beliefs, and desires. It is often used casually to refer to unsubstantiated personal opinions, in contrast to knowledge and fact-based beliefs. In philosophy, the term is often contrasted with...
.
External links
- The 'by design' argument for theism
- Full text of Natural Theology; or, Evidences of the Existence and Attributes of the Deity
- Intelligent Design Deja Vu What would "intelligent design" science classes look like? All we have to do is look inside some 19th-century textbooks.
- Robert Hooke
- William Paley (1743–1805)
- The Autobiography of Charles Darwin
The Autobiography of Charles Darwin is the autobiography of the British naturalist Charles Darwin which was published in 1887, five years after his death....
, revised version published in 1958 by Darwin's granddaughter Nora BarlowEmma Nora Barlow was the granddaughter of the British naturalist Charles Darwin, who edited and published previously unseen examples of her grandfather's work.- Biography :...
.
- Recapitulation and Conclusion", By Charles Darwin.
- Natural History Magazine
- The Blind Watchmaker
The Blind Watchmaker is a 1986 book by Richard Dawkins in which he presents an explanation of, and argument for, the theory of evolution by means of natural selection. He also presents arguments to refute certain criticisms made on his previous book The Selfish Gene...
, Richard DawkinsClinton Richard Dawkins, FRS, FRSL is a British ethologist, zoologist, Neo-Darwinian evolutionary biologist and theorist and a popular science author....
- Evidence for Jury-Rigged Design in Nature
- Evolution and irrationality
- The Human Eye: A design review (This mentions the birth canal as well.)
- Chaos in the Solar System, by J Laskar
- Index to Creationist Claims
- Stupid Alleged Design of Human Reproduction
- The Watchmaker Analogy Animated and Dramatically Read