Philosophy 2/27/2006 101 - Exercise 3 In its essence, the design argument is very simple. It makes the general inference that things in the universe that serve some purpose, must have a designer. On a small level, this could be anything from material objects such as houses or clothing, to theories such as that of relativity and that of supply and demand. All of these things serve purposes in the universe and so they also all have designers. From these facts larger inferences can be made with regard to the universe as a whole. It seems to serve a purpose and so in turn, it too has a designer. It is at this point that Cleanthes further deducts that the designer of the universe is G-d. The basic objection that Philo makes to Cleanthes arguments above is in regard to the analogies laid out. Essentially the best analogies are made when one starts with something similar to whatever you are trying to explain or prove. Philo says that Cleanthes of comparison houses, clothing and other human designed things to the design of the universe is weak. He states that in order for the rationalizations to make more sense and be more probable, evidence of the design of other universes would have to be available. Cleanthes responds to this objection through the proposal of a new analogy. He suggests that for arguments sake, books reproduce in the same manner as animals reproduce. If this were actually the case, it would still be the consensus that books have a designer. Furthermore, one would see the strongest analogy to mind and intelligence in them. In other words, books hold a seemingly infinite amount of knowledge within their covers, all of which must have a designer, as with theories like that of relativity and supply and demand. What is more, if books can show even a slim mark of design, then animals, which are much more complex beings, can be used to infer design.