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    LoyalLoyalJusticeJustice
    Made withinDC&Austin
    God's existence needs nothing other than itself — neither... — Carmelics
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    Home/Divine Attributes
    HistoryEditSee Inverse

    God's existence needs nothing other than itself — neither a substratum nor an efficient cause — in order for God to 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
    ?
    • 1.Analysis of causal chains reveals that God is simple.
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    • 2.God is dependent on no cause.
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    • 3.An existence that requires no substratum and no efficient cause is self-sufficient.
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    Reasons Against

    2 perspectives
    Reason against 1 of 2
    ?
    • 1.Existence, as Kant argues in the Critique of Pure Reason, is not a real predicate but a logical posit requiring a conceptual framework to be intelligible.
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    • 2.Any claim that an entity 'needs nothing to exist' presupposes the logical category of existence, which is itself a condition external to the entity.
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    • 3.Therefore, God's existence is not fully self-grounding but depends on the logical structure within which existence-claims are made.
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    Reason against 2 of 2
    ?
    • 1.Avicenna's own distinction between essence and existence entails that even in a Necessary Existent, existence must be 'added' to essence conceptually.
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    • 2.If existence is conceptually distinguishable from essence even in God, then God's existing requires the actualization of a relationship between two distinct aspects.
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    • 3.A being whose existence involves any internal conceptual dependency cannot be said to need 'nothing other than itself' in an absolute sense.
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    Topics

    Divine Attributes

    Connections

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    Natural Theology1 linked

    Related

    A being whose existence involves any internal conceptual dependency cannot be sa...An existence that requires no substratum and no efficient cause is self-sufficie...Analysis of causal chains reveals that God is simple.Any claim that an entity 'needs nothing to exist' presupposes the logical catego...
    +5 moreShow less
    Avicenna's own distinction between essence and existence entails that even in a ...Existence, as Kant argues in the Critique of Pure Reason, is not a real predicat...God is dependent on no cause.If existence is conceptually distinguishable from essence even in God, then God'...Therefore, God's existence is not fully self-grounding but depends on the logica...

    Similar

    An existence that requires no substratum and no efficient cause is sel...89%God is a substance, and substances are causally independent of each ot...79%Something must ground this necessity of existence.79%God must be a metaphysically necessary being, one that cannot not exis...79%

    Source

    AI-extracted1/3 agreementValid
    SEP: al-farabi-metaphysics
    View source passageHide passage
    Fârâbî takes this result as indicating that dialectic and demonstrative science give different meanings, not only to the “what is X?” question and thus to quiddity (dialectic seeking a nominal definition, science a causal definition), but also to the “whether X is” question and thus to existence. So he says that, as in dialectic the two-place investigation “whether X is Y” is only concerned with the copula (not with whether it is essential predication), so in dialectic the one-place investigatio
    Extraction notes

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

    Details

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