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    There exists a first cause or ground of the cosmos that i... — Carmelics
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    Home/Divine Attributes
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    There exists a first cause or ground of the cosmos that is, at least in part, not identical to the cosmos itself.

    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.Something exists — the cosmos or some empirical content of experience — rather than nothing.
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    • 2.The existence of something requires a first cause or sufficient ground for that existence.
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    Reasons Against

    2 perspectives
    Reason against 1 of 2
    ?
    • 1.The principle of sufficient reason, when applied universally, generates vicious regress or requires the cosmos itself to be its own sufficient reason.
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    • 2.If the cosmos can be its own sufficient reason, no external first cause is logically necessitated by P2.
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    • 3.Spinoza's substance monism demonstrates a coherent metaphysical system in which the single infinite substance is causa sui, requiring no external ground.
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    Reason against 2 of 2
    ?
    • 1.Hume's Enquiry establishes that causal necessity is a habit of mind projected onto experience, not a feature of reality itself.
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    • 2.If causal necessity is not an objective feature of reality, P2's claim that existence 'requires' a first cause lacks ontological force and reduces to a psychological tendency.
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    Topics

    Divine AttributesNatural Theology

    Connections

    1 topic

    Causation2 linked

    Related

    Hume's Enquiry establishes that causal necessity is a habit of mind projected on...If causal necessity is not an objective feature of reality, P2's claim that exis...If the cosmos can be its own sufficient reason, no external first cause is logic...Something exists — the cosmos or some empirical content of experience — rather t...
    +3 moreShow less
    Spinoza's substance monism demonstrates a coherent metaphysical system in which ...The existence of something requires a first cause or sufficient ground for that ...The principle of sufficient reason, when applied universally, generates vicious ...

    Similar

    The existence of something requires a first cause or sufficient ground...82%If X is prior in being to everything other than itself, then X is the ...81%Every being other than the first being has some cause distinct from it...81%The cosmos is contingent, sharing a key similarity with its content.79%

    Source

    AI-extracted1/3 agreementValid
    SEP: natural-theology
    View source passageHide passage
    An a posteriori argument involves at least one premise whose justification essentially appeals to some sort of empirical fact or experience. The main demonstrative a posteriori argument is what Kant dubbed “the cosmological argument”. It is motivated by the familiar question “Why is there something rather than nothing?” and goes from the empirical fact of the existence of something (or of the cosmos as a whole, perhaps) to the existence of a first cause or ground of that cosmos that is, at least
    Extraction notes

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

    Details

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