Necessary ExistenceNecessary Existence breaks ground on one of the deepest questions anyone ever asks: why is there anything? The classic answer is in terms of a necessary foundation. Yet, why think that is the correct answer? Pruss and Rasmussen present an original defense of the hypothesis that there is a concrete necessary being capable of providing a foundation for the existence of things. They offer six main arguments, divided into six chapters. The first argument is an up-to-date presentation and assessment of a traditional causal-based argument from contingency. The next five arguments are new "possibility-based" arguments that make use of twentieth-century advances in modal logic. The arguments present possible pathways to an intriguing and far-reaching conclusion. The final chapter answers the most challenging objection to the existence of necessary things. |
Contents
Introduction | 1 |
Metaphysical Possibility and Necessity | 11 |
An Argument from Contingency | 33 |
An Argument from Possible Causes | 69 |
From Possible Causes II | 93 |
From Modal Uniformity | 110 |
From Necessary Abstracta to Necessary Concreta | 126 |
The Argument from Perfections | 150 |
Arguments against a Necessary Being | 173 |
A Slew of Arguments | 195 |
| 209 | |
| 217 | |
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Common terms and phrases
abstract object accessibility relation actual world affairs argue Argument from Contingency atomic axioms basic begin to obtain Beginning of Contingency Big Fact Brouwer causal power Chapter claim conceivability conclusion concrete entities concrete objects consider contingent concrete things contingent entities contingent existence contingent fact contingent reality contingent things cosmological arguments counterexamples defeasible entails essentially example exemplified exists necessarily explanatory principle external cause finite number follows Gödelian argument hence impossible independent reason infer infinite instance intuition iPhone least limitation metaphysical nihilism metaphysically possible modal logic modal uniformity necessary concrete thing necessary existence necessary things necessary truths necessity negation negative number of concrete one's ontological argument ontology option particles philosophers plausible plural quantification plurality positive property possible world possibly true premise problem proposition Pruss reason to think relevant Reply restricted seems semantic sentence skeptical Socrates someone spacetime Subtraction Argument suppose theorem theory truthbearers uncaused event weak causal principle