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    Carmelics

    A reasoning platform. Break down any belief into clear reasons, explore both sides, and weigh the evidence honestly.

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    LoyalLoyalJusticeJustice
    Made withinDC&Austin
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    Home/Original/inverse
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    Inverse View

    It is not the case that A simple cause has one and only one simple effect.

    ?Set your confidence on the premises below to see your aggregate.

    Reasons For

    2 perspectives
    Reason for 1 of 2
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    • 1.Aquinas's doctrine of divine simplicity holds that God is absolutely simple yet produces causally distinct creatures with irreducibly different essences (ST I, q.3).
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    • 2.The Thomistic resolution—that effects differ due to their finite receptive capacity, not from plurality in the cause—demonstrates that causal differentiation need not entail complexity in the cause.
      ?

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    • 3.Therefore, the inference from 'same simple cause' to 'indistinguishable effects' wrongly attributes the source of differentiation to the cause rather than to the ontological structure of the effect.
      ?

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    Reason for 2 of 2
    ?
    • 1.Leibniz's own monadology shows a simple substance (God) producing an infinite plurality of distinct monads, each with unique perceptual content.
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    • 2.If the originator of PSR himself requires a simple cause to produce multiple distinct effects, the entailment from simplicity to singular effect is internally inconsistent with the PSR tradition.
      ?

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    Reasons Against

    1 perspective
    Reason against
    ?
    • 1.Each effect must be fully explained by its cause.
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    • 2.If a simple cause produced more than one effect, the difference between the two effects would be unexplainable, since each is supposed to be fully explained by the same cause.
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    • 3.Whatever cannot be explained violates the Principle of Sufficient Reason.
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    Next step

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    Strongest counterpoint
    Explore the most compelling reason on the other side.