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    If the aggregate just is the one necessary being under an... — Carmelics
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    Challenges→The aggregate of all contingent things cannot exist without a cause external to the aggregate.

    If the aggregate just is the one necessary being under another description, then P4's inference from contingent parts to a contingent whole fails by misidentifying the aggregate's modal status.

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    1 reason for
    1 reason against

    Reasons For

    1 perspective
    Reason for
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    • 1.Identity statements can hold between entities under different descriptions without changing modal properties.
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    • 2.If the aggregate is numerically identical to a necessary being, it inherits necessity regardless of how it's described.
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    • 3.Modal properties supervene on identity, not on descriptive content; same entity = same modality.
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    Reasons Against

    1 perspective
    Reason against
    ?
    • 1.Composition from contingent parts confers contingency on wholes; description cannot override this principle.
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    • 2.If an entity is composed of contingent parts, the fact of that composition makes it contingent, even if identical to something else.
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    • 3.Modal status should track actual constitution, not just identity relations; two aspects of one thing can have different modal profiles.
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    Key Terms

    Modal status(as used in metaphysics and logic)
    Whether something is necessary (must be true), possible (could be true), or contingent (just happens to be true). 'Modal' refers to these kinds of distinctions about how things *could be* versus how they actually are.
    P4(Relational principle linking knowledge to its object.)
    Knowledge is what it is in relation to what it is knowledge of — the nature of knowledge is constituted by its object.
    aggregate(Avicenna's argument for a necessary existent)
    The totality of all currently existing contingent individual things, each of whose existence is accounted for by its causal antecedents.
    contingent(De Interpretatione 12–13)
    Equated with 'possible'; on the two-sided interpretation, contingency excludes necessity (possibility implies non-necessity).
    misidentifying(in logical analysis)
    Incorrectly identifying or recognizing something—here, getting wrong what kind of thing the aggregate is (whether it must exist or only happens to exist).
    necessary being(Theistic metaphysics)
    A being that exists and is God in every possible world

    Connections

    2 topics

    Causation1 linkedNatural Theology1 linked

    Related

    Composition from contingent parts confers contingency on wholes; description can...Identity statements can hold between entities under different descriptions witho...

    Details

    Type
    claim
    Perspectives
    2 (1 for, 1 against)
    Edits
    1 edit
    If an entity is composed of contingent parts, the fact of that composition makes...
    If the aggregate is numerically identical to a necessary being, it inherits nece...
    +3 moreShow less
    Modal properties supervene on identity, not on descriptive content; same entity ...Modal status should track actual constitution, not just identity relations; two ...The aggregate of all contingent things cannot exist without a cause external to ...