From states of affairs to a necessary being

Philosophical Studies 148 (2):183 - 200 (2010)
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Abstract

I develop new paths to the existence of a concrete necessary being. These paths assume a metaphysical framework in which there are abstract states of affairs that can obtain or fail to obtain. One path begins with the following causal principle: necessarily, any contingent concrete object possibly has a cause. I mark out steps from that principle to a more complex causal principle and from there to the existence of a concrete necessary being. I offer a couple alternative causal principles and paths, too. The paths marked out rely on relatively modest causal principles and avoid many obstacles that traditional cosmological arguments face.

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Joshua Rasmussen
Azusa Pacific University

Citations of this work

Why does God exist?C. A. Mcintosh - 2022 - Religious Studies 58 (1):236-257.
From a necessary being to god.Joshua Rasmussen - 2009 - International Journal for Philosophy of Religion 66 (1):1-13.
A New Argument for a Necessary Being.Joshua Rasmussen - 2011 - Australasian Journal of Philosophy 89 (2):351-356.
Cosmological Arguments from Contingency.Joshua Rasmussen - 2010 - Philosophy Compass 5 (9):806-819.
The Modal Ontological Argument Meets Modal Fictionalism.Ted Parent - 2016 - Analytic Philosophy 57 (4):338-352.

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References found in this work

An Essay on Free Will.Peter van Inwagen - 1983 - New York: Oxford University Press.
The Nature of Necessity.Alvin Plantinga - 1974 - Oxford, England: Clarendon Press.
Critique of Pure Reason.I. Kant - 1787/1998 - Philosophy 59 (230):555-557.
Objects and Persons.Trenton Merricks - 2001 - New York: Oxford University Press.
Critique of pure reason.Immanuel Kant - 2007 - In Elizabeth Schmidt Radcliffe, Richard McCarty, Fritz Allhoff & Anand Vaidya, Late modern philosophy: essential readings with commentary. Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell. pp. 449-451.

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