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    If the cosmos is identical to God or Nature (Deus sive Na... — Carmelics
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    Challenges→The cosmos is contingent, sharing a key similarity with its content.

    If the cosmos is identical to God or Nature (Deus sive Natura), attributing contingency to it conflates modal categories that apply only to finite modes.

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    1 reason for
    1 reason against

    Reasons For

    1 perspective
    Reason for
    ?
    • 1.Necessity and contingency are relational concepts defined by dependence on external causes; the infinite whole has no external cause.
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    • 2.Spinoza's substance is self-caused (causa sui) and self-determined; these attributes are incompatible with contingency by definition.
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    • 3.Applying finite-world modal logic to the infinite totality commits a category mistake, like using 'heavy' to describe numbers.
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    Reasons Against

    1 perspective
    Reason against
    ?
    • 1.Contingency describes possibility of non-existence; this applies to any entity regardless of scale—even infinite wholes could be other.
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    • 2.The cosmos exhibits genuine physical indeterminacy (quantum mechanics); denying this contingency requires empirical refutation, not logic.
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    • 3.Self-causation (causa sui) is conceptually incoherent whether infinite or finite; it doesn't resolve the contingency problem.
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    Connections

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    Natural Theology1 linked

    Related

    Applying finite-world modal logic to the infinite totality commits a category mi...Contingency describes possibility of non-existence; this applies to any entity r...Necessity and contingency are relational concepts defined by dependence on exter...Self-causation (causa sui) is conceptually incoherent whether infinite or finite...
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    Spinoza's substance is self-caused (causa sui) and self-determined; these attrib...The cosmos exhibits genuine physical indeterminacy (quantum mechanics); denying ...The cosmos is contingent, sharing a key similarity with its content.

    Details

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    claim
    Perspectives
    2 (1 for, 1 against)
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    1 edit