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    LoyalLoyalJusticeJustice
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    God's activity as first cause is actually the cause of ou... — Carmelics
    Home/Divine Attributes
    HistoryEditSee Inverse

    God's activity as first cause is actually the cause of our freedom.

    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 moves us in accordance with our voluntary nature.
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    Reasons Against

    2 perspectives
    Reason against 1 of 2
    ?
    • 1.A will determined in its very act of willing by an external cause—even one aligned with its nature—lacks the sourcehood required for genuine freedom.
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    • 2.Compatibilist redefinitions of freedom as 'acting according to one's nature' cannot account for the agent's ability to be the ultimate originator of her own acts.
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    • 3.Kant's autonomy condition requires that the will legislate for itself, a condition violated if God is the primary cause of each free act.
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    Reason against 2 of 2
    ?
    • 1.The claim that divine causation causes freedom commits a category error: causation produces effects, but freedom is the absence of a certain kind of causal determination.
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    • 2.Rowe's principle holds that an omnipotent being who actualizes every free choice renders the agent's contribution causally redundant, defeating the concept of agent causation.
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    Related

    A will determined in its very act of willing by an external cause—even one align...Compatibilist redefinitions of freedom as 'acting according to one's nature' can...God moves us in accordance with our voluntary nature.Kant's autonomy condition requires that the will legislate for itself, a conditi...
    +2 moreShow less
    Rowe's principle holds that an omnipotent being who actualizes every free choice...The claim that divine causation causes freedom commits a category error: causati...

    Similar

    God is the first cause and knows all the laws of the world.77%Given libertarian freedom, our actions are up to us in that they are n...74%Divine freedom means God need not do everything that is good.72%God is the only true cause.72%

    Source

    AI-extracted2/3 agreementValid
    SEP: providence-divine
    Aquinas, Summa Theologica I-II, Q. 18, Art 1, ad 3
    View source passageHide passage
    It may seem obvious that neither can survive: that once the operations of creaturely wills are subordinated to God’s will, libertarian freedom disappears, and with it any hope of absolving God of moral evil. But at least where freedom is concerned, traditional theology asserts the opposite. Augustine, for example, held that God moves our wills, working in us both to will and to do of his good pleasure, as scripture says (Phil. 2:13). Yet he insists that this does not diminish our freedom, for if it did we would not be told in the same passage to work out our salvation in fear and trembling (On...
    Extraction notes

    Validity: The passage explicitly attributes to Aquinas the claim that "God's activity as first cause is actually the cause of our freedom, since he moves us in accordance with our voluntary nature," making both the argument's presence and its rational structure clear.

    Confidence: Clearly stated argument from Aquinas.

    Details

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