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    The First Being has existed without beginning and will ex... — Carmelics
    Home/Divine Attributes
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    The First Being has existed without beginning and will exist without end, and has no potentiality for not existing.

    Divine AttributesNatural Theology
    ?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 Being cannot be dependent on anything for its existence or continuation in existence.
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    • 2.A being that could cease to exist or fail to begin existing would depend on something for its existence.
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    Reasons Against

    2 perspectives
    Reason against 1 of 2
    ?
    • 1.Necessary existence, as Kant argued in the Critique of Pure Reason, is a logical category that cannot be coherently applied to an existing being.
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    • 2.The concept 'X cannot not-exist' is analytically empty because existence is not a predicate that admits of modal qualification in the relevant sense.
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    • 3.Therefore, claiming the First Being 'has no potentiality for not existing' conflates logical necessity with ontological necessity without justification.
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    Reason against 2 of 2
    ?
    • 1.Hume's Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion establishes that whatever can be conceived as existing can equally be conceived as not existing.
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    • 2.If the First Being is a coherent concept at all, its non-existence must be conceivable, which entails its non-existence is genuinely possible.
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    • 3.A being whose non-existence is genuinely possible cannot be said to lack all potentiality for not existing, undermining al-Farabi's modal claim.
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    Topics

    Divine AttributesNatural Theology

    Related

    A being that could cease to exist or fail to begin existing would depend on some...A being whose non-existence is genuinely possible cannot be said to lack all pot...Hume's Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion establishes that whatever can be co...If the First Being is a coherent concept at all, its non-existence must be conce...
    +4 moreShow less
    Necessary existence, as Kant argued in the Critique of Pure Reason, is a logical...The First Being cannot be dependent on anything for its existence or continuatio...The concept 'X cannot not-exist' is analytically empty because existence is not ...Therefore, claiming the First Being 'has no potentiality for not existing' confl...

    Similar

    If God cannot begin or cease to be, He is immutable with respect to ex...84%Matter has never come into existence but is co-eternal with God, yet d...83%It is possible for something to begin to exist without any cause83%God (an infinite being) must exist.83%

    Source

    AI-extracted1/3 agreementValid
    SEP: al-farabi-metaphysics
    View source passageHide passage
    At a first stab: Fârâbî argues that, if something is “first” in the sense that nothing is prior to it, it cannot be dependent on anything for its existence or for its continuation in existence. Therefore it has existed without beginning and will exist without end, and has no potentiality for not existing. It has no efficient cause, but also no material cause: if it had a material cause, its matter would be prior to it, and presumably it would also depend on an efficient cause to turn its matter
    Extraction notes

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

    Details

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