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    Aquinas's privation theory (Summa Theologiae I, Q.48) hol... — Carmelics
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    Challenges→The lack of a capacity is an evil, even when that lack is essential to the nature of the thing.

    Aquinas's privation theory (Summa Theologiae I, Q.48) holds that blindness is evil in a human but not in a stone, because sight belongs to human nature.

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    1 reason for
    1 reason against

    Reasons For

    1 perspective
    Reason for
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    • 1.Evil is the absence of a good that should naturally be present in a thing given its essential nature and function.
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    • 2.Humans naturally possess sight as part of their characteristic capacities; stones do not have this natural orientation.
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    • 3.Blindness prevents humans from fulfilling their natural ends, but deprivation requires a prior capacity to be deprived of.
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    Reasons Against

    1 perspective
    Reason against
    ?
    • 1.The theory arbitrarily privileges biological capacities over other natural properties, making the boundaries of 'nature' unclear.
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    • 2.If evil requires deviation from nature, humans with congenital blindness never had sight to lose, so blindness wouldn't be evil for them.
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    • 3.Pain and suffering accompany blindness regardless of whether sight belongs to one's nature, suggesting evil has a basis independent of privation.
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    Against an attribute of God1 linkedProblem of Evil1 linked

    Related

    Blindness prevents humans from fulfilling their natural ends, but deprivation re...Evil is the absence of a good that should naturally be present in a thing given ...Humans naturally possess sight as part of their characteristic capacities; stone...If evil requires deviation from nature, humans with congenital blindness never h...
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    Pain and suffering accompany blindness regardless of whether sight belongs to on...The lack of a capacity is an evil, even when that lack is essential to the natur...The theory arbitrarily privileges biological capacities over other natural prope...

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    claim
    Perspectives
    2 (1 for, 1 against)
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    1 edit