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    God must be a metaphysically necessary being, one that ca... — Carmelics
    Home/Divine Attributes
    HistoryEditSee Inverse

    God must be a metaphysically necessary being, one that cannot not exist.

    Divine Attributes
    ?Rate how convincing each reason is below to see the overall strength.
    1 reason for
    2 reasons against

    Reasons For

    1 perspective
    Reason for
    ?
    • God is maximally perfect, that than which no greater can be conceived.
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    Reasons Against

    2 perspectives
    Reason against 1 of 2
    ?
    • 1.Existence is not a predicate or perfection-making property, as Kant argued in the Critique of Pure Reason.
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    • 2.If existence is not a genuine predicate, then 'necessary existence' cannot be derived from the concept of maximal perfection.
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    • 3.Therefore, the move from 'maximally perfect' to 'necessarily existing' is logically illicit, not metaphysically grounded.
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    Reason against 2 of 2
    ?
    • 1.Modal status (necessary vs. contingent) is determined by the nature of the entity, not stipulated by conceptual analysis alone.
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    • 2.Hume established that whatever can be conceived to exist can also be conceived not to exist, making necessary existence inconceivable for any being.
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    • 3.No coherent distinction between a world containing God and one lacking God can be ruled out purely on logical grounds.
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    Divine Attributes

    Related

    Existence is not a predicate or perfection-making property, as Kant argued in th...God is maximally perfect, that than which no greater can be conceived.Hume established that whatever can be conceived to exist can also be conceived n...If existence is not a genuine predicate, then 'necessary existence' cannot be de...
    +3 moreShow less
    Modal status (necessary vs. contingent) is determined by the nature of the entit...No coherent distinction between a world containing God and one lacking God can b...Therefore, the move from 'maximally perfect' to 'necessarily existing' is logica...

    Similar

    There exists a being that is necessary in itself86%A necessary being is one whose possibility entails its existence, and ...85%If God is by definition a necessary being, then necessary existence is...84%A necessary being is not metaphysically contingent84%

    Source

    AI-extracted3/3 agreementValid
    SEP: divine-simplicity
    View source passageHide passage
    One can also arrive at the simplicity doctrine via the divine necessity. As maximally perfect, as that than which no greater can be conceived, God must be a metaphysically necessary being, one that cannot not exist. A necessary being is one whose possibility entails its existence, and whose nonexistence entails its impossibility. But what could be the ground of this necessity of existence if not the identity in God of essence and existence, possibility and actuality? Saying that God exists in all metaphysically possible worlds does not provide a ground, but merely a graphic Leibnizian represen...
    Extraction notes

    Validity: The passage explicitly states "As maximally perfect, as that than which no greater can be conceived, God must be a metaphysically necessary being, one that cannot not exist," directly linking maximal perfection as a premise to necessary existence as a conclusion.

    Confidence: Clearly stated in the text.

    Details

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