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    Edwards's criterion that a real cause must be fully suffi... — Carmelics
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    Challenges→God alone is the only real cause.

    Edwards's criterion that a real cause must be fully sufficient without cooperation from other powers proves too much, as it entails that a God who creates mediating natural laws is not the real cause of their effects either.

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    Key Terms

    Cooperation from other powers(Edwards said a real cause shouldn't need assistance from other powers to produce its effect)
    Help or involvement from other forces, agents, or things that also contribute to making something happen.
    Edwards(as a philosopher who built on occasionalism)
    Jonathan Edwards, an 18th-century American philosopher and theologian who developed ideas based on Malebranche's theory about how God relates to human action.
    Fully sufficient(Edwards argued that a real cause must be fully sufficient—it must do the job completely by itself)
    Having everything needed on its own to make something happen, without needing help from anything else.
    Mediating natural laws(Instead of God directly causing effects, God could work through natural laws that mediate (act as go-betweens))
    Rules of nature that act as intermediaries—they sit between a cause and its effect, carrying out the cause's influence.

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    Real cause(Edwards's criteria used to argue that only God qualifies as a real cause)
    A cause that is not spatially or temporally distinct from its effect, that necessarily produces its effect, and that is fully sufficient to produce its effect without the cooperation of other causal powers.
    criterion(as used in philosophy to describe a test for whether an idea works)
    A standard or rule used to decide whether something counts as true or valid.
    entails(describes a logical relationship between statements)
    Logically forces or guarantees; if A entails B, then whenever A is true, B must also be true.

    Connections

    2 topics

    Causation1 linkedDivine Attributes1 linked

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    God alone is the only real cause.

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