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    The First is simple, i.e., has no internal composition — Carmelics
    Statements
    321,452
    Perspectives
    108,905
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    42
    Home/Divine Attributes
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    The First is simple, i.e., has no internal composition

    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 has no cause
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    • 2.Anything with internal composition (e.g., matter and form, genus and differentia, or physical parts) would depend on something prior
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    • 3.The First cannot depend on anything prior to itself
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    Reasons Against

    2 perspectives
    Reason against 1 of 2
    ?
    • 1.Aquinas holds that God's simplicity is compatible with real conceptual distinctions between divine attributes like goodness and power.
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    • 2.If real conceptual distinctions within God are coherent, then the First may have a form of internal differentiation without causal dependence on anything prior.
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    • 3.Al-Farabi's argument from causation rules out material and formal composition but does not entail the absence of all internal differentiation.
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    Reason against 2 of 2
    ?
    • 1.Plotinus, whom al-Farabi closely follows, acknowledges that the One generates Intellect through a kind of self-overflowing, implying some internal productivity or potency.
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    • 2.If the First possesses the internal capacity or potency to produce emanations, this constitutes a real intrinsic distinction between the First qua potential cause and qua actual being.
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    • 3.A distinction between the First's productive power and its self-subsistence is a form of internal composition that the causal argument alone cannot dissolve.
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    Topics

    Divine AttributesNatural Theology

    Connections

    1 topic

    Causation3 linked

    Related

    A distinction between the First's productive power and its self-subsistence is a...Al-Farabi's argument from causation rules out material and formal composition bu...Anything with internal composition (e.g., matter and form, genus and differentia...Aquinas holds that God's simplicity is compatible with real conceptual distincti...
    +5 moreShow less
    If real conceptual distinctions within God are coherent, then the First may have...If the First possesses the internal capacity or potency to produce emanations, t...Plotinus, whom al-Farabi closely follows, acknowledges that the One generates In...The First cannot depend on anything prior to itselfThe First has no cause

    Similar

    The First is simple83%Divine simplicity requires that God not be composed of distinct consti...82%The First is simple, and its simplicity constrains the only possible w...81%God is simple.80%

    Source

    AI-extracted1/3 agreementValid
    SEP: al-farabi-metaphysics
    View source passageHide passage
    Fârâbî’s general strategy is (1) to argue that anything that is “first” must not have any kind of cause, since any such cause would be prior to it and it would not be first, and that it has no privation or potentiality (either of which would imply dependence on something prior); then (2) to infer that since it has no cause it must be simple, i.e., that it is “one” in the sense of not having any of the different kinds of internal composition (e.g., out of matter and form, genus and differentia, o
    Extraction notes

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

    Details

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