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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
    Statements
    321,452
    Perspectives
    108,905
    Topics
    42
    Home/Original/inverse
    See Original
    Inverse View

    It is not the case that Angels possess a conceptual — not real — composition of potency and act.

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

    Reasons For

    2 perspectives
    Reason for 1 of 2
    ?
    • 1.Aquinas argues angels are composed of act and potency really, not merely conceptually, since their essence is really distinct from their esse.
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    • 2.A merely conceptual composition cannot ground the genuine metaphysical finitude and contingency that distinguishes angels from God in se.
      ?

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    • 3.If potency and act differ only conceptually in angels, angels would be immune to genuine accidental change, which contradicts their capacity for intellectual development and free choice.
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    Reason for 2 of 2
    ?
    • 1.Relational standing to higher and lower beings is an extrinsic denomination and cannot by itself constitute an intrinsic metaphysical structure within a substance.
      ?

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    • 2.Aristotle's hylomorphic framework requires that act and potency designate real, intrinsic principles of a thing, not merely its position in an ontological hierarchy.
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    • 3.A being whose composition is only conceptual lacks a real internal ground for its limitation, making its distinction from God arbitrary rather than metaphysically necessary.
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    Reasons Against

    1 perspective
    Reason against
    ?
    • 1.Angels possess an intermediary nature, falling between purely potential beings and the purely actual First Being (God).
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    • 2.Because angels are assimilated to something higher and more actual and to something lower and more potential, actuality and potentiality are present in them.
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    • 3.This presence of actuality and potentiality is grounded in relational standing — being related to what is higher and what is lower — not in any real internal composition.
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