COURAGE53a basis for our explanations of things
within the cosmos. Cosmological argu-
ments are sometimes formulated to jus-
tify the belief that the cosmos requires a
necessary cause in time (a First Cause),
but they are often articulated in terms of
the cosmos requiring a necessary cause at
every (and thus any) time it exists. Some
forms of the cosmological argument are
formulated not in terms of necessity
and contingency, but in terms of causal
dependence and independence. Some
philosophers argue that our cosmos of
dependent causation in which events are
accounted for (and depend on) other
events, requires an independent being to
account for its existence and continuance.
COSMOLOGY. Accounts of the origin
and nature of the cosmos. Some philo-
sophers of religion minimize cosmology
and stress religion as a social, cultural
phenomena, whereas others hold that
cosmology bears centrally on questions
about God, the soul, the afterlife, and
ethics.
COSMOS. From the Greek kosmos,
meaning “order, ornament, world, or uni-
verse.” Classical theism regards the cos-
mos as created, if not at a first moment
in time, then at least continuously held in
being through God’s causal conservation
at every moment. Naturalists regard the
cosmos as uncreated and without tempo-
ral beginning. Pantheists view the cosmos
as in some measure divine, either as a
reality that is identical with God or as
a reality that constitutes but is not identi-
cal with God.COUNTERFACTUALS. A conditional
proposition (If A, then B) in which the
antecedent, A, is false or did not occur.
For example, consider the claim that if
Camus had not died so young, he would
have become a Roman Catholic. The
status of counterfactuals is currently in
dispute, especially the counterfactuals of
freedom. Is it true or false now that if you
are offered a theology professorship at
Fordham University in the future, you
will freely accept the position? Molinists
think such a question admits of a truth
value and that God knows all counterfac-
tuals, whereas open theists claim there
is no truth now of what free creatures
will do under conditions that have yet to
occur or may never occur.COURAGE. Ancient, medieval, and
some modern uses of the term in English
presuppose that courage involves the per-
ceived risk-taking for a good, or at least
an ostensibly good cause. Risk-taking that
is not for the good has customarily been
described with other terms such as bold-
ness or recklessness in the context Aristotle
uses in describing an excess that fails
to achieve a golden mean (moderation).
Current usage in English is vague and
ambiguous.