Hostname: page-component-8448b6f56d-xtgtn Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-24T06:34:53.540Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Powers, possibility, and the essential cosmological argument

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 September 2021

Ben Cook Open the ORCID record for Ben Cook [Opens in a new window]
Ben Cook*
Affiliation:
Department of Philosophy, 541 Hall of Languages, Syracuse University, Syracuse, NY, USA
*
Corresponding author: Ben Cook, email: bkcook@syr.edu
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

One classical version of cosmological argument, defended famously by Thomas Aquinas and Duns Scotus, deduces the existence of a First Cause from the existence of a particular sort of causal series: one that is ‘essentially ordered’. This argument has received renewed defence in recent work by Feser (2013), Cohoe (2013), and Kerr (2015). I agree with these philosophers that the argument is sound. I believe, however, that the standard defence given of the ECA in these philosophers can be complemented by a formulation that appeals to the powers theory of possibility. This approach to possibility has been defended in recent years by, for example, Pruss (2002), Jacobs (2010), and Vetter (2015). In this article, I show how this modal theory allows us to defend the ECA in a way that is dialectically advantageous as well as clarifying.

Keywords

Powerspossibilitycosmological argumentessential ordercausation
Type
Original Article
Information
Religious Studies , Volume 58 , Issue 4 , December 2022 , pp. 745 - 758
Check for updates
Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s), 2021. Published by Cambridge University Press

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Adams, RM (1981) Actualism and thisness. Synthese 49, 3–41.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Aquinas, T (2011) On Creation: Quaestiones Disputatae de Potentia Dei, Q. 3. Selner-Wright, SC (trans.). Washington, DC: Catholic University of America Press.Google Scholar
Borghini, A and Williams, NE (2008) A dispositional theory of modality. Dialectica 62, 21–41.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Brown, P (1966) Infinite causal regression. The Philosophical Review 75, 510–525.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cartwright, RL (1996) The second way. Medieval Philosophy and Theology 5, 189–204.Google Scholar
Cohoe, C (2013) There must be a first: why Thomas Aquinas rejects infinite, essentially ordered, causal series. British Journal for the History of Philosophy 21, 838–856.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cross, R (2005) Duns Scotus on God. Ashgate Studies in the History of Philosophical Theology. New York, NY: Routledge.Google Scholar
Feser, E (2013) The new atheists and the cosmological argument. Midwest Studies in Philosophy 37, 154–177.Google Scholar
Feser, E (2017) The Existence of God. San Francisco, CA: Ignatius Press.Google Scholar
Frank, WA and Wolter, AB (eds) (1995). Duns Scotus, Metaphysician. West Lafayette, IN: Purdue University Press.Google Scholar
Gilby, T (1964) Appendices in: Summa Theologiae, vol. 2: Existence and Nature of God (Ia. 2–11). McDermott, T (ed.). London: Blackfriars.Google Scholar
Hume, D (2007) Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion and Other Writings. Cambridge Texts in the History of Philosophy. Coleman, D (ed.). New York, NY: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Jacobs, JD (2010) A powers theory of modality: or, how I learned to stop worrying and reject possible worlds. Philosophical Studies 151, 227–248.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kerr, G (2012) Essentially ordered series reconsidered. American Catholic Philosophical Quarterly 86, 541–555.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kerr, G (2015) Aquinas's Way to God. New York, NY: Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kerr, G (2019) Aquinas and the Metaphysics of Creation. New York, NY: Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
King, P (2003) Scotus on metaphysics. In Williams, T (ed.), The Cambridge Companion to Duns Scotus. New York, NY: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Klima, G (2013) Whatever happened to efficient causes? In Klima, G and Hall, AW (eds), Skepticism, Causality and Skepticism about Causality. Proceedings of the Society for Medieval Logic and Metaphysics, vol. 10. Newcastle upon Tyne: Cambridge Scholars Publishing.Google Scholar
Lewis, D (2001) On the Plurality of Worlds. Malden, MA: Blackwell.Google Scholar
Plantinga, A (1978) The Nature of Necessity. New York, NY: Clarendon.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pruss, A (2001 a) The actual and the possible. In Gale, RM (ed.), Blackwell Guide to Metaphysics. Malden, MA: Blackwell. Reprinted with permission at http://alexanderpruss.com/papers/ActualAndPossible.html.Google Scholar
Pruss, A (2001 b) Possible Worlds: What They Are Good For and What They Are (Doctoral dissertation). University of Pittsburgh. http://alexanderpruss.com/papers/PhilThesis.html.Google Scholar
Scotus, JD (1949) The De Primo Principio of John Duns Scotus: A Revised Text and A Translation. Roche, E (trans.). Saint Bonaventure, NY: The Franciscan Institute.Google Scholar
Vetter, B (2011) Recent work: modality without possible worlds. Analysis 71, 742–753.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Vetter, B (2015) Potentiality: From Dispositions to Modality. New York, NY: Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar