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    The Principle of Sufficient Reason, understood as 'everyt... — Carmelics
    Home/Natural Theology
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    The Principle of Sufficient Reason, understood as 'everything not metaphysically necessary has an explanation in something metaphysically necessary', leads to a logically necessary being

    Natural Theology
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    1 reason for
    2 reasons against

    Reasons For

    1 perspective
    Reason for
    ?
    • 1.The PSR requires that everything lacking metaphysical necessity be explained by something metaphysically necessary
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    • 2.Following the PSR to its conclusion yields a being that is logically necessary, as in Leibniz
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    Reasons Against

    2 perspectives
    Reason against 1 of 2
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    • 1.The PSR can be satisfied by an infinite regress of contingent explanations, none of which requires a necessary terminus (Hume, Dialogues IX).
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    • 2.Leibniz illicitly assumes the regress must terminate, but serial explanation without a ground is logically coherent on broadly Humean ontology.
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    Reason against 2 of 2
    ?
    • 1.Kant demonstrated that 'logically necessary existence' is not a coherent property: necessity is a feature of propositions, not of beings (Critique A592/B620).
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    • 2.Even if the PSR entails a terminus of explanation, that terminus need only be causally or nomologically necessary, not logically necessary in the Leibnizian sense.
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    Topics

    Natural Theology

    Key Terms

    Logically necessary being(metaphysics and theology)
    Something whose existence is required by the laws of logic itself—it must exist because the alternative (it not existing) would be impossible or contradictory.
    Metaphysically necessary(as used in modal metaphysics)
    Something that must be true in all possible ways the world could be; it's not just true in our world but couldn't possibly be false in any imaginable scenario.
    Principle of Sufficient Reason(Leibniz's foundational metaphysical principle underwriting the explicability of all events and phenomena.)
    Nothing takes place without a sufficient reason; nothing occurs for which it would be impossible for someone who has enough knowledge of things to give a reason adequate to determine why the thing is as it is and not otherwise.
    explanation(philosophy of science / epistemology)
    A concept whose meaning entails that if one theory is more explanatory than another, the former must be more informative than the latter
    metaphysics(Hartshorne's naturalistic redefinition of metaphysics)
    On Hartshorne's view, the study not of realities beyond the physical, but of features of reality that are ubiquitous or that would exist in any possible world.

    Related

    Even if the PSR entails a terminus of explanation, that terminus need only be ca...Following the PSR to its conclusion yields a being that is logically necessary, ...Kant demonstrated that 'logically necessary existence' is not a coherent propert...Leibniz illicitly assumes the regress must terminate, but serial explanation wit...
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    The PSR can be satisfied by an infinite regress of contingent explanations, none...The PSR requires that everything lacking metaphysical necessity be explained by ...

    Source

    AI-extracted1/3 agreementValid
    SEP: cosmological-argument
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    Swinburne notes that “a cosmological argument argues that the fact that there is a universe needs explaining” (2004: 9–10). However, he emphasizes that his approach differs from those we have already considered in that he rejects the Principle of Sufficient Reason understood as “everything not ‘metaphysically necessary’ has an explanation in something ‘metaphysically necessary’” (2004: 148), for the PSR leads, as it does in Leibniz, to a being that is logically necessary, and such a being cannot
    Extraction notes

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

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    Similar

    The PSR requires that everything lacking metaphysical necessity be exp...91%Following the PSR to its conclusion yields a being that is logically n...87%The Principle of Sufficient Reason (PSR) applies to metaphysical conti...84%God's necessity is not logical necessity.84%
    Type
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