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    Carmelics

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    LoyalLoyalJusticeJustice
    Made withinDC&Austin
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    Home/Original/inverse
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    Inverse View

    It is not the case that Kant's insight that existence is not a predicate entails that 'necessarily existing being' smuggles an existential claim into the concept of divine perfection itself.

    ?Set your confidence on the premises below to see your aggregate.

    Reasons For

    1 perspective
    Reason for
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    • 1.Kant's doctrine applies to empirical predicates; necessity itself may function differently, making necessary existence not a hidden premise.
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    • 2.Defining perfection as 'the maximal degree of all positive properties' may analytically include necessary existence without smuggling.
      ?

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    • 3.The claim conflates conceptual analysis with metaphysical truth; Kant's insight about predicates doesn't settle what God's nature actually requires.
      ?

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    Reasons Against

    1 perspective
    Reason against
    ?
    • 1.Kant correctly showed existence adds nothing to a concept's content; it's a positing of the concept itself, not a predicate within it.
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    • 2.Defining God as 'perfect being' conceptually excludes existence, making necessary existence an external addition to the definition.
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    • 3.The ontological argument illicitly smuggles existence into God's essence by treating perfection as necessarily entailing actuality.
      ?

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