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    A regress-stopping explanation must be intrinsically self... — Carmelics
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    Challenges→The existence of the universe can be made comprehensible if we suppose that it is brought about by God.

    A regress-stopping explanation must be intrinsically self-explanatory, a criterion that personal agency (Hume, Dialogues XI) satisfies no better than brute physical necessity.

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    Reasons For

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    • 1.Both personal agency and brute necessity invoke irreducible facts that halt explanation without further justification.
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    • 2.Hume showed agents' choices depend on prior desires and character, making agency no more foundationally self-explanatory than physical laws.
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    • 3.If regress-stopping requires intrinsic self-explanatoriness, neither contingent physical facts nor contingent mental acts qualify equally well.
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    Reasons Against

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    • 1.Personal agency involves rational deliberation and responsiveness to reasons, a structure brute necessity completely lacks.
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    • 2.Self-explanatory means conceptually self-contained; 'I acted for reasons I endorsed' provides internal coherence distinct from 'it just happened'.
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    • 3.Hume's reductionism about agency doesn't prove agency lacks explanatory self-sufficiency—only that it's metaphysically economical.
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    Natural Theology1 linked

    Related

    Both personal agency and brute necessity invoke irreducible facts that halt expl...Hume showed agents' choices depend on prior desires and character, making agency...Hume's reductionism about agency doesn't prove agency lacks explanatory self-suf...If regress-stopping requires intrinsic self-explanatoriness, neither contingent ...
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    Personal agency involves rational deliberation and responsiveness to reasons, a ...Self-explanatory means conceptually self-contained; 'I acted for reasons I endor...The existence of the universe can be made comprehensible if we suppose that it i...

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