confidence in the power of therapy. Perhaps a less naïve alternative is to conclude that
life really is absurd. This is the position of an important strand of atheistic existentialist
literature which accepts the Thomistic idea that human desires and aims are irremediably
thwarted without God, but rejects the premise that human desires cannot be irremediably
thwarted. Camus' essay “The Myth of Sisyphus” (1955) is a poignant portrayal of this
view of human destiny. It contains the following epigram: “Oh my soul do not aspire to
immortal heights but exhaust the field of the possible.” Camus' kind of atheism makes an
interesting contrast with the atheism of the Enlightenment, which simply rejects the
soundness of arguments for theism while attempting to keep most of traditional ethics.
The denial of God's existence is an intrinsic feature of Camus' view of the human
condition. The absurdity of life is his price for accepting the major premise of the moral
argument for the existence of God.^6
The transcendental arguments addressed in this section focus on the conditions for the
meaningfulness of human life. In the next section we look at another kind of
transcendental argument that argues that God's existence is a condition for escaping
motivation skepticism.
Motivation Skepticism
Transcendental arguments are most commonly used against skepticism about an external
world. They attempt to show that the beliefs the skeptic doubts are preconditions for a
skeptical hypothesis to make sense. These arguments also are inspired by Kant, who
argued against Descartes that our consciousness of our own existence in time presupposes
something permanent in perception on which our own existence depends. My
consciousness of my own existence is simultaneously a consciousness of the existence of
things outside of me. Kant says that
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the skeptical hypothesis that nothing exists except my own mind therefore turns against
itself (1999, “Refutation of Idealism,” 1781/B276).
Kant's argument against skepticism addresses the conditions for theoretical judgment,
whereas his moral argument addresses the conditions for engaging in the moral life. What
the arguments have in common is the attempt to identify the necessary condition for
something to make sense, either a theoretical judgment or an act of will. Skepticism
attacks thought; atheism attacks the obligation to act morally. But skepticism is not
simply a problem for theoretical judgment. It is also a practical problem because
confidence in the truth of beliefs is a condition for having the motive to act. In this
section I propose a transcendental argument that combines features of both of Kant's
arguments. It is a moral argument for theism that arises from motivation skepticism, or
skepticism about the meaningfulness of engaging in the moral life.
Radical skepticism in epistemology is the threat of massive and undiscoverable failure in
our cognitive life, particularly in the formation of beliefs. Skepticism is a threat because
we have epistemic ends, one of which is to get the truth, and the function of skeptical