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    Hume's Dialogues Part IX argues that whatever can be conc... — Carmelics
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    Challenges→Hume's and Kant's criticisms of the ontological argument do not target the strongest version of Anselm's argument found in Proslogion chapter 3.

    Hume's Dialogues Part IX argues that whatever can be conceived as existing can be conceived as not existing, which directly targets modal necessity claims.

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    Reasons For

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    Reason for
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    • 1.Conceivability and possibility are epistemically linked: if something is genuinely inconceivable, we have reason to doubt its metaphysical possibility.
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    • 2.Hume's principle challenges rationalist claims that necessity is knowable a priori through reason alone, requiring empirical grounding instead.
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    • 3.The principle successfully undermines essentialist arguments that treat certain properties as necessarily inhering in objects by nature.
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    Reasons Against

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    • 1.Conceivability is a poor guide to possibility: we can fail to conceive of necessary truths (like mathematical proofs) without making them contingent.
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    • 2.Hume conflates psychological conceivability with metaphysical possibility, ignoring that imagination has limits independent of modal facts.
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    • 3.Logical and mathematical necessities (e.g., contradictions being impossible) seem to escape Hume's principle without absurd consequences.
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    Natural Theology1 linked

    Related

    Conceivability and possibility are epistemically linked: if something is genuine...Conceivability is a poor guide to possibility: we can fail to conceive of necess...Hume conflates psychological conceivability with metaphysical possibility, ignor...Hume's and Kant's criticisms of the ontological argument do not target the stron...
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    Hume's principle challenges rationalist claims that necessity is knowable a prio...Logical and mathematical necessities (e.g., contradictions being impossible) see...The principle successfully undermines essentialist arguments that treat certain ...

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