material constitution

The Argument from Composition

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In this video, I cover the argument for the existence of God from composition, first given by Plotinus and more recently developed by Edward Feser.

NOTES

  1. The things of our experience are composites
    • Everything we see has parts
    • The things of our experience are composites (composed of parts)
  2. The existence of a composite depends on the existence and arrangement of the part
    • What is the relation of the whole to its parts?
      • What is the relation of the book to its pages/cover?
      • The book depends on its parts and their arrangement for its existence
    • Not temporal dependence
      • The body exists concurrently with the parts
    • The existence of the whole depends on the existence and arrangement of the part
  3. The existence and arrangement of the parts require a cause(s)
    • The paper is made up of parts itself and requires a certain temperature to exist in order to not burn up
    • That is to say that the parts themselves require causes
  4. The cause(s) of the parts and their arrangement can't be the composite
    • What could be that cause(s)?
    • Can't be the whole
    • S1: vicious circle
  5. The cause(s) of the parts and their arrangement can't ultimately be a composite
    • It could be something else with parts, but then we'd have the same problem
    • What is causing those parts to exist and be arranged as such?
    • If we keep pointing to things with parts, then we'll never have any causality at all
      • It'll be collection of parts A borrowing causality from collection of parts B borrowing from C, but nobody actually has the causality in the first place
    • S1: vicious regress
  6. So, the ultimate cause of the parts and their arrangement must be something completely simple
  7. There can only be one simple thing
    1. For two simple things to be different, one would have to have a feature the other lacks
    2. To have a feature is to be composed
    3. So, at least one of them will not be simple
  8. So, everything is caused by one simple thing
  • O1: law of nature
    • R1: either
      • Law of nature could be something not real
        • Mathematical description of what happens
        • In this case, it has no causal power, it just describes
      • Law of nature could be something real
        • It just part of the composite
        • What combines the natural law with the parts?
          • Feser
            • Composite of A and B
            • Natural law L combines them
            • Why is A and B governed by L rather than by some other law?
            • A-B-L becomes a new composite we must explain
  • O2: brute fact
    • R1: the simple cause is an explanation and there is no question-begging reason to reject it, so we can't just renounce it

Further Reading

Mind, Matter, and Nature: A Thomistic Proposal for the Philosophy of Mind" by James Madden