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    LoyalLoyalJusticeJustice
    Made withinDC&Austin
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    42
    Leftow's defense that a distance of zero is just an absen... — Carmelics
    Home/Afterlife & Death
    HistoryEditSee Inverse

    Leftow's defense that a distance of zero is just an absence of distance fails.

    Afterlife & Death
    ?Rate how convincing each reason is below to see the overall strength.
    2 reasons for
    1 reason against

    Reasons For

    2 perspectives
    Reason for 1 of 2
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    • 1.In metric space theory, a distance of zero between two distinct points violates the identity of indiscernibles, entailing the points are identical.
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    • 2.If God and temporal moments are numerically distinct yet at zero distance, Leftow's account collapses into a contradiction by metric axioms.
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    • 3.A genuine absence of distance requires non-relational separation, not a limiting case of a relational magnitude that presupposes the relata.
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    Reason for 2 of 2
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    • 1.Aquinas distinguishes privation from negation: zero distance is a privation of magnitude, which still posits a relational framework between terms.
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    • 2.Leftow's 'absence' reading smuggles in a negation where the mathematics demands a privation, conflating distinct ontological categories.
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    Reasons Against

    1 perspective
    Reason against
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    • A distance of zero would seem to be a distance, not an absence of distance.
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    Afterlife & Death

    Related

    A distance of zero would seem to be a distance, not an absence of distance.A genuine absence of distance requires non-relational separation, not a limiting...Aquinas distinguishes privation from negation: zero distance is a privation of m...If God and temporal moments are numerically distinct yet at zero distance, Lefto...
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    In metric space theory, a distance of zero between two distinct points violates ...Leftow's 'absence' reading smuggles in a negation where the mathematics demands ...

    Similar

    A distance of zero would seem to be a distance, not an absence of dist...89%The Zero Thesis says that the distance between God and any spatial thi...87%If the distance between God and any spatial thing is always zero, then...84%The distance between God and any thing in space is zero (the 'Zero The...83%

    Source

    AI-extracted
    SEP: eternity
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    Unfortunately, the Zero Thesis and Leftow’s case for it are problematic. From the fact that there is no spatial distance between spatial things and God, it does not follow that the spatial distance between spatial things and God is zero. A similar inference leads one to claim that all spatial things are spatially contiguous with yellow and the number 3. Leftow is of course aware of this consequence, and accepts it as a surprising finding about yellow and the number 3; he argues that the Zero Thesis only seems problematic because one fails to notice that a distance of zero is just an absence of...

    Details

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