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    Carmelics

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    Home/Original/inverse
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    Inverse View

    It is not the case that 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.

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

    Reasons For

    1 perspective
    Reason for
    ?
    • 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.
      ?

      Think about whether this reason is strong or weak

    Reasons Against

    1 perspective
    Reason against
    ?
    • 1.Evil is the absence of a good that should naturally be present in a thing given its essential nature and function.
      ?

      Think about whether this reason is strong or weak

    • 2.Humans naturally possess sight as part of their characteristic capacities; stones do not have this natural orientation.
      ?

      Think about whether this reason is strong or weak

    • 3.Blindness prevents humans from fulfilling their natural ends, but deprivation requires a prior capacity to be deprived of.
      ?

      Think about whether this reason is strong or weak

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