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    An eternally unchanging first cause can cause an eternall... — Carmelics
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    Home/Natural Theology
    HistoryEditSee Inverse

    An eternally unchanging first cause can cause an eternally constant motion (such as the rotation of a heavenly sphere) by serving as a final cause — an object of desire

    CausationNatural Theology
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    1 reason for
    2 reasons against

    Reasons For

    1 perspective
    Reason for
    ?
    • 1.The existence of motion presupposes a first cause that is pure actuality and cannot itself be changed or moved
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    • 2.An eternally unchanging cause cannot directly produce changing motions
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    • 3.A cause that is eternally desired by a moved object can produce an eternally constant motion without itself changing
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    Reasons Against

    2 perspectives
    Reason against 1 of 2
    ?
    • 1.A final cause produces motion only by being cognized or represented by the moved subject, which requires the subject to have intentional mental states.
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    • 2.Heavenly spheres, as physical objects, lack the cognitive apparatus necessary to represent an object of desire and orient motion toward it.
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    • 3.Therefore, the final cause model transplanted from Aristotelian ethics to cosmology commits a category error by attributing appetitive cognition to non-minded bodies.
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    Reason against 2 of 2
    ?
    • 1.Hume's regularity theory establishes that causal relations require observable contiguity and succession between cause and effect across instances.
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    • 2.An eternally unchanging cause that never varies cannot be distinguished, on empirical grounds, from a mere constant background condition rather than an active cause.
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    • 3.The inference from eternal constancy of the First Cause to its causal efficacy therefore smuggles in a rationalist notion of necessary causation that begs the question against empiricist accounts.
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    Topics

    Natural TheologyCausation

    Connections

    2 topics

    Divine Attributes2 linkedModality & Possibility1 linked

    Related

    A cause that is eternally desired by a moved object can produce an eternally con...A final cause produces motion only by being cognized or represented by the moved...An eternally unchanging cause cannot directly produce changing motionsAn eternally unchanging cause that never varies cannot be distinguished, on empi...
    +5 moreShow less
    Heavenly spheres, as physical objects, lack the cognitive apparatus necessary to...Hume's regularity theory establishes that causal relations require observable co...The existence of motion presupposes a first cause that is pure actuality and can...

    Similar

    An eternally unchanging cause cannot directly produce changing motions85%A cause that is eternally desired by a moved object can produce an ete...84%The existence of motion presupposes a first cause that is pure actuali...81%If there is an infinite regress of causes, then all things that exist ...77%

    Source

    AI-extracted1/3 agreementValid
    SEP: al-farabi-metaphysics
    View source passageHide passage
    Fârâbî gives no further explanation of how or why the existence of X can be a sufficient cause of the existence of Y. (He says that the existence of Y “emanates” [using the root f-y-ḍ] from the existence of X, but this is just a technical term meaning that X’s existence, rather than some further act of X, causes Y to exist; the term “emanation” does not explain how this happens, and Fârâbî does not pretend that it does.) He just infers that this must happen in some cases, since more than one thi
    Extraction notes

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

    Details

    The inference from eternal constancy of the First Cause to its causal efficacy t...
    Therefore, the final cause model transplanted from Aristotelian ethics to cosmol...
    Type
    claim
    Perspectives
    3 (1 for, 2 against)
    Edits
    1 edit