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    Carmelics

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    All created beings are as nothing in comparison to God — Carmelics
    Home/Divine Attributes
    HistoryEditSee Inverse

    All created beings are as nothing in comparison to God

    Against an aspect of GodDivine Attributes
    ?Rate how convincing each reason is below to see the overall strength.
    1 reason for
    2 reasons against

    Reasons For

    1 perspective
    Reason for
    ?
    • 1.God's power and perfection are so great that all other beings are as nothing to him
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    • 2.All other excellency is as nothing and less than nothing in comparison to God's excellency
      ?

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    • 3.The whole system of created beings in comparison to God is as the light dust of the balance
      ?

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    Reasons Against

    2 perspectives
    Reason against 1 of 2
    ?
    • 1.Leibniz demonstrates in the Monadology that created substances possess genuine causal powers and intrinsic perfections irreducible to their relation to God.
      ?

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    • 2.A being with irreducible intrinsic perfections cannot coherently be described as 'nothing' relative to another being without committing a category error between absolute and comparative predication.
      ?

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    • 3.Edwards' comparison conflates the logical grammar of 'infinite difference' with 'no difference,' an equivocation Kant would later identify as a misuse of regulative ideas as constitutive claims.
      ?

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    Reason against 2 of 2
    ?
    • 1.Aquinas argues in Summa Theologica that creation participates genuinely in divine being, giving creatures real ontological dignity rather than near-nothingness.
      ?

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    • 2.If creatures share in Being Itself (esse), their existence is not merely comparative diminishment but a real, if derivative, mode of existence with intrinsic worth.
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    Topics

    Divine AttributesAgainst an aspect of God

    Related

    A being with irreducible intrinsic perfections cannot coherently be described as...All other excellency is as nothing and less than nothing in comparison to God's ...Aquinas argues in Summa Theologica that creation participates genuinely in divin...Edwards' comparison conflates the logical grammar of 'infinite difference' with ...
    +4 moreShow less
    God's power and perfection are so great that all other beings are as nothing to ...If creatures share in Being Itself (esse), their existence is not merely compara...Leibniz demonstrates in the Monadology that created substances possess genuine c...The whole system of created beings in comparison to God is as the light dust of ...

    Similar

    Human beings are only lent created things by God81%There is no proportion and no resemblance between human finite existen...79%Created beings are no more than God's shadows or images79%Earthworms are beings.78%

    Source

    AI-extracted1/3 agreementValid
    SEP: edwards
    View source passageHide passage
    Why, though, is God being in general? Because finite beings are absolutely and immediately dependent upon him for both their being and properties. Indeed, as the only true substance and only true cause, created beings are no more than God's “shadows” or “images.” (While “particular minds” deliberate and choose, and so possess a kind of agency, they lack real power and are thus no more than images of divine agency. Because they lack not only power but also consciousness and will, bodies are even
    Extraction notes

    Validity: Extracted via Max plan + API grounding/validity checks

    Details

    Type
    claim
    Perspectives
    3 (1 for, 2 against)
    Edits
    1 edit