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    Carmelics

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    Matter is bad and is the source and cause of all badness ... — Carmelics
    Home/Problem of Evil
    HistoryEditSee Inverse

    Matter is bad and is the source and cause of all badness and disorder in the world.

    Against an attribute of God
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    1 reason for
    2 reasons against

    Reasons For

    1 perspective
    Reason for
    ?
    • 1.Matter is essentially disordered.
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    • 2.Disorder amounts to badness for Numenius.
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    • 3.The source of disorder in the world is matter.
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    Reasons Against

    2 perspectives
    Reason against 1 of 2
    ?
    • 1.Plotinus argues matter is not actively evil but merely privation of form — an absence, not a positive causal force of badness.
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    • 2.A privation cannot be a 'source and cause' in the robust causal sense Numenius requires, since causes must possess the qualities they transmit.
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    Reason against 2 of 2
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    • 1.Aristotle demonstrates that matter is a necessary co-principle of form, and without it no good sensible thing could exist at all.
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    • 2.If matter were the source of all badness, then the existence of any embodied good — health, beauty, virtue in action — would be inexplicable.
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    Topics

    Problem of EvilAgainst an attribute of God

    Connections

    3 topics

    Causation2 linkedProof of definition segments1 linkedTruth & Knowledge1 linked

    Related

    A privation cannot be a 'source and cause' in the robust causal sense Numenius r...Aristotle demonstrates that matter is a necessary co-principle of form, and with...Disorder amounts to badness for Numenius.If matter were the source of all badness, then the existence of any embodied goo...
    +3 moreShow less
    Matter is essentially disordered.Plotinus argues matter is not actively evil but merely privation of form — an ab...The source of disorder in the world is matter.

    Similar

    Matter is the source of what is bad in the physical world87%God cannot be the source of what is bad85%If God or the One is the ultimate principle from which everything incl...83%A wholly good being cannot be the ultimate cause of bad things80%

    Source

    AI-extracted1/3 agreementValid
    SEP: numenius
    View source passageHide passage
    Such an argument shows that Numenius has strong views about the ontological status of matter, the basis, he supposes, of all bodies (fr. 4b.25). In his 4th c. CE Latin commentary on the Timaeus Calcidius presents a long discussion about the status of matter (In Timaeum p. 297.7-301.20 Waszink), claiming that this is based on Numenius (fr. 52.2). If Numenius did elaborate on the status of matter along the lines suggested in Calcidius, that must be because it was crucial to do so for his argument
    Extraction notes

    Validity: Extracted via Max plan + API grounding/validity checks

    Details

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