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    Vulgar (second) causes are merely occasions upon which Go... — Carmelics
    Home/Divine Attributes
    HistoryEditSee Inverse

    Vulgar (second) causes are merely occasions upon which God produces effects according to established methods and laws.

    Causation
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    1 reason for
    2 reasons against

    Reasons For

    1 perspective
    Reason for
    ?
    • 1.God is the only real cause.
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    • 2.Events that follow upon so-called second causes are actually produced by God.
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    • 3.God acts according to customary methods and laws, using second causes as occasions for divine action.
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    Reasons Against

    2 perspectives
    Reason against 1 of 2
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    • 1.Malebranche's occasionalism, the tradition Edwards draws on, was refuted by Leibniz: if creatures have no causal power, God performs infinitely many miracles constantly, violating divine simplicity and economy.
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    • 2.A God who must perpetually intervene at each 'occasion' is less perfect than one who endows creatures with inherent causal natures, as Leibniz argued against Malebranche in the Discourse on Metaphysics.
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    • 3.Secondary causes possessing real productive powers, as Aquinas defended via instrumental causality, is coherent with divine primacy and does not require reducing created agents to mere occasions.
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    Reason against 2 of 2
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    • 1.If God is the sole true cause, human agents cannot be genuinely responsible for their actions, collapsing moral accountability into divine determinism.
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    • 2.Occasionalism's attribution of all causal efficacy to God makes God the direct author of evil acts, undermining divine moral perfection.
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    Topics

    Divine AttributesCausation

    Related

    A God who must perpetually intervene at each 'occasion' is less perfect than one...Events that follow upon so-called second causes are actually produced by God.God acts according to customary methods and laws, using second causes as occasio...God is the only real cause.
    +4 moreShow less
    If God is the sole true cause, human agents cannot be genuinely responsible for ...Malebranche's occasionalism, the tradition Edwards draws on, was refuted by Leib...Occasionalism's attribution of all causal efficacy to God makes God the direct a...Secondary causes possessing real productive powers, as Aquinas defended via inst...

    Similar

    God acts according to customary methods and laws, using second causes ...85%Real causes necessarily produce their effects.84%Events that follow upon so-called second causes are actually produced ...83%If second causes were real causes, they would be sufficient on their o...83%

    Source

    AI-extracted1/3 agreementValid
    SEP: edwards
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    Edwards implicitly distinguishes between a real or true cause and a cause in the ordinary or “vulgar” sense. The latter is “that, after or upon the existence of which, or the existence of it after such a manner, the existence of another thing follows” (“The Mind,” no. 26; Edwards 1957–, vol. 6, 350). Vulgar causes aren't real causes, however. In the first place, so-called second causes are spatially or temporally distinct from their effects, and “no [real] cause can produce effects in a time and
    Extraction notes

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

    Details

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