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    The lack of a capacity is an evil, even when that lack is... — Carmelics
    Home/Problem of Evil
    HistoryEditSee Inverse

    The lack of a capacity is an evil, even when that lack is essential to the nature of the thing.

    Against an attribute of GodProblem of Evil
    ?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.Things have different degrees of being corresponding to the number and kinds of capacities they possess.
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    • 2.The more numerous and impressive a thing's capacities, the more real and metaphysically better it is.
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    • 3.Finite creatures such as rocks and dogs necessarily lack certain capacities (e.g., a rock cannot pass through walls).
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    Reasons Against

    2 perspectives
    Reason against 1 of 2
    ?
    • 1.A privation constitutes an evil only when a being lacks a capacity it is naturally ordered to possess, not merely any capacity whatsoever.
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    • 2.Aquinas's privation theory (Summa Theologiae I, Q.48) holds that blindness is evil in a human but not in a stone, because sight belongs to human nature.
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    • 3.Therefore, lacks essential to a kind's nature cannot be evils, since no natural ordering toward that capacity exists to be frustrated.
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    Reason against 2 of 2
    ?
    • 1.Leibniz's principle of perfection holds that finite beings are metaphysically complete when they fully actualize their own specific nature, not an unlimited nature.
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    • 2.A rock fully being a rock, with all rock-essential limitations, instantiates a genuine grade of perfection rather than a deficiency of higher perfection.
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    • 3.Treating essential limitations as evils commits the category error of measuring a thing against a nature it neither has nor is ordered toward.
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    Topics

    Problem of EvilAgainst an attribute of God

    Connections

    2 topics

    Natural Theology4 linkedDivine Attributes2 linked

    Related

    A privation constitutes an evil only when a being lacks a capacity it is natural...A rock fully being a rock, with all rock-essential limitations, instantiates a g...Aquinas's privation theory (Summa Theologiae I, Q.48) holds that blindness is ev...Finite creatures such as rocks and dogs necessarily lack certain capacities (e.g...
    +6 moreShow less
    Leibniz's principle of perfection holds that finite beings are metaphysically co...The more numerous and impressive a thing's capacities, the more real and metaphy...Therefore, lacks essential to a kind's nature cannot be evils, since no natural ...

    Similar

    Therefore, inability to do evil is not a deficiency in power76%Infinite capacities such as God's infinite power cannot have limits (t...73%Finite creatures such as rocks and dogs necessarily lack certain capac...71%Any degree of unnecessary evil, however small, is incompatible with th...70%

    Source

    AI-extracted1/3 agreementValid
    SEP: evil-kinds-origins
    View source passageHide passage
    The Absence Theory of Evil has its origins in the Platonic idea that there are different “degrees of being” corresponding to the number and kinds of capacities a thing has. Roughly speaking, the more numerous and impressive a thing’s capacities, the more real and thus better it is, metaphysically-speaking. A dog cannot stand erect; an ape can. A rock cannot pass through walls; an angel can. These lacks or absences are essential to being the kind of finite creature that a dog or a rock is; miracl
    Extraction notes

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

    Details

    These lacks or absences are essential to being the kind of finite creature that ...
    Things have different degrees of being corresponding to the number and kinds of ...
    Treating essential limitations as evils commits the category error of measuring ...
    Type
    claim
    Perspectives
    3 (1 for, 2 against)
    Edits
    1 edit