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    The existence of the First is a sufficient cause of the e... — Carmelics
    Home/Divine Attributes
    HistoryEditSee Inverse

    The existence of the First is a sufficient cause of the existence of the First's first effect

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

    Reasons For

    1 perspective
    Reason for
    ?
    • 1.The First must be able to produce at least one first effect without an instrument or substratum
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    • 2.In the case where no instrument or substratum is involved, nothing other than the First's existence is present to serve as a cause
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    Reasons Against

    2 perspectives
    Reason against 1 of 2
    ?
    • 1.A sufficient cause requires not merely the existence of the cause but also the obtaining of relevant causal conditions or relations between cause and effect.
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    • 2.Al-Farabi's argument conflates the First's existence being necessary for the effect with its being sufficient, which are logically distinct modal claims.
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    • 3.Avicenna's distinction between existence and essence shows that even a necessary existent's existence does not automatically determine what effects flow from it without additional analysis of its nature.
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    Reason against 2 of 2
    ?
    • 1.Occasionalist thinkers like Al-Ghazali denied that any created or even uncreated being possesses inherent causal sufficiency, locating all productive power in divine will.
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    • 2.If causal sufficiency requires an act of will or determination beyond mere existence, then bare existence—even of the First—cannot alone constitute a sufficient cause.
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    • 3.Al-Farabi's emanationist model illicitly imports Neoplatonic necessity into causation, bypassing the voluntarist requirement that a cause must actively determine its effect.
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    Topics

    Divine AttributesCausation

    Connections

    1 topic

    Natural Theology1 linked

    Related

    A sufficient cause requires not merely the existence of the cause but also the o...Al-Farabi's argument conflates the First's existence being necessary for the eff...Al-Farabi's emanationist model illicitly imports Neoplatonic necessity into caus...Avicenna's distinction between existence and essence shows that even a necessary...
    +4 moreShow less
    If causal sufficiency requires an act of will or determination beyond mere exist...In the case where no instrument or substratum is involved, nothing other than th...Occasionalist thinkers like Al-Ghazali denied that any created or even uncreated...The First must be able to produce at least one first effect without an instrumen...

    Similar

    The existence of something requires a first cause or sufficient ground...85%God's creating Adam and Eve is a causally sufficient condition of Abel...84%If X is prior in being to everything other than itself, then X is the ...82%Each effect must be fully explained by its cause.80%

    Source

    AI-extracted1/3 agreementValid
    SEP: al-farabi-metaphysics
    View source passageHide passage
    but he gives no argument that the First’s existence entails the existence of other things. Rather, he seems to rely on the argument that since other things in fact exist, their existence must ultimately be caused by the First; his main concern is not to show that the First causes the existence of other things, but to show how it causes the existence of other things, and in particular to show that that by which the First causes the existence of other things is identical with its essence, just as
    Extraction notes

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

    Details

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