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    Carmelics

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    LoyalLoyalJusticeJustice
    Made withinDC&Austin
    Statements
    321,452
    Perspectives
    108,905
    Topics
    42
    Home/Original/inverse
    See Original
    Inverse View

    It is not the case that The PSR can be satisfied by an infinite regress of contingent explanations, none of which requires a necessary terminus (Hume, Dialogues IX).

    ?Set your confidence on the premises below to see your aggregate.

    Reasons For

    1 perspective
    Reason for
    ?
    • 1.Explaining why B exists by citing A, and why A exists by citing B (etc. infinitely) provides no answer to why anything exists at all.
      ?

      Think about whether this reason is strong or weak

    • 2.If each contingent fact requires prior explanation, an infinite series of contingent facts collectively requires something non-contingent to ground it.
      ?

      Think about whether this reason is strong or weak

    • 3.PSR's explanatory principle breaks down if we accept that brute contingent facts need no ultimate justification, rendering the principle vacuous.
      ?

      Think about whether this reason is strong or weak

    Reasons Against

    1 perspective
    Reason against
    ?
    • 1.An infinite chain can be self-explanatory as a whole without needing external justification, like a circle needing no point outside itself.
      ?

      Think about whether this reason is strong or weak

    • 2.PSR only requires that each item has an explanation; it doesn't stipulate that explanations must terminate in a necessary being.
      ?

      Think about whether this reason is strong or weak

    • 3.Infinite regresses are logically coherent in mathematics and physics, so they're coherent explanatory structures for contingent facts.
      ?

      Think about whether this reason is strong or weak

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