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Causal Principles, Degrees of Reality, and the Priority of the Infinite

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2020

Georgette Sinkler
Georgette Sinkler*
Affiliation:
Washington University, St. Louis, MO63130, U.S.A.
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Extract

Descartes’ version of the Cosmological Argument in the Third Meditation is usually considered a failure, not because its conclusion doesn't follow from its premises, but because the truth of two of its premises is doubtful. One of these premises is that the objective reality of an idea is derived from a cause in which there is at least as much formal reality; the other, that only a being that possesses the qualities normally attributed to God could be responsible for the idea of God. Typically there are two objections made in response to the first of these premises. First, we don't understand the concepts of formal and objective reality well enough to know whether or not the premise commands our assent.

Type
Research Article
Information
Canadian Journal of Philosophy , Volume 19 , Issue 1 , March 1989 , pp. 61 - 81
Copyright
Copyright © The Authors 1989

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References

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