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    Aquinas's identification of the first cause with the God ... — Carmelics
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    Aquinas's identification of the first cause with the God of religion goes beyond what the causal reasoning of the cosmological argument strictly establishes.

    Divine AttributesNatural Theology
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    2 reasons for
    1 reason against

    Reasons For

    2 perspectives
    Reason for 1 of 2
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    • 1.The cosmological argument's conclusion is a metaphysically minimal 'uncaused cause,' logically compatible with impersonal principles like Spinoza's Deus sive Natura or the Neoplatonic One.
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    • 2.Attributes like omniscience, moral goodness, and personal agency are not entailed by causal primacy alone, as Hume demonstrates in the Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion Part IV.
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    • 3.Aquinas's own Five Ways conclude only to a first mover and necessary being, requiring the Summa Theologiae's subsequent treatise De Deo Uno to supply the theistic attributes through separate argumentation.
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    Reason for 2 of 2
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    • 1.The inference from 'causally first' to 'worthy of worship' commits what Findlay called the gap between ontological ultimacy and religious adequacy.
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    • 2.A causally sufficient originating principle need not possess intentionality, since brute physical singularities or abstract necessitarian structures can satisfy the regress-termination requirement without personhood.
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    Reasons Against

    1 perspective
    Reason against
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    • 1.The cosmological argument is grounded in causal reasoning.
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    • 2.Identifying the first cause with a religiously described God requires theological commitments beyond causal inference.
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    • 3.Aquinas's move from first cause to God is motivated by his view that philosophy is the handmaiden of theology, not by the argument's internal logic.
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    Divine AttributesNatural Theology

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    Causation1 linked

    Related

    A causally sufficient originating principle need not possess intentionality, sin...Aquinas's move from first cause to God is motivated by his view that philosophy ...Aquinas's own Five Ways conclude only to a first mover and necessary being, requ...Attributes like omniscience, moral goodness, and personal agency are not entaile...
    +4 moreShow less
    Identifying the first cause with a religiously described God requires theologica...The cosmological argument is grounded in causal reasoning.The cosmological argument's conclusion is a metaphysically minimal 'uncaused cau...The inference from 'causally first' to 'worthy of worship' commits what Findlay ...

    Similar

    Identifying the first cause with a religiously described God requires ...87%The Kalaam cosmological argument employs reasoning about origins, self...86%The cosmological argument establishes only the existence of a first ca...84%The kalām cosmological argument's conclusion (that God caused the begi...82%

    Source

    AI-extracted1/3 agreementValid
    SEP: cosmological-argument
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    Finally, even if the cosmological argument is sound or cogent, the difficult task remains to show, as part of natural theology, that the necessary being to which the cosmological argument concludes is the God of religion, and if so, of which religion. Rowe suggests that the cosmological argument has two parts, one to establish the existence of a first cause or necessary being, the other that this necessary being is God (1975: 6). It is unclear, however, whether the second contention is an essent
    Extraction notes

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

    Details

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