Category: Modal Matters
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If Someone is Walking is He Necessarily Walking?
This article defends the modal collapse objection to the doctrine of divine simplicity. Brian Bosse asked me about this. Here is my answer. Put on your thinking caps, boys and girls. (Hey Joe, who was it who used to say that back at STS, Sr. Ann Miriam in the first grade?) Substack latest.
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Could there have been nothing at all?
I am of two minds. Substack latest.
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Notes on Van Inwagen on Modal Epistemology
We have some modal knowledge. How? Substack latest.
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Is the Modal Ontological Argument Rationally Compelling?
I argue that it isn't.
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Closer to the Grave, Farther from Birth
Top o' the Stack. Wherein I ruminate upon the curious modality, necessitas per accidens.
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God, Doubt, Denial, and Truth: A Note on Van Til
Cornelius Van Til, The Defense of the Faith, 4th ed., P&R Publishing, 2008, p. 294: "To doubt God is to deny him." I take that to mean that to doubt that God exists is to deny that God exists. The obvious objection to this is that doubt and denial are very different propositional attitudes. In…
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What is Potentiality?
Substack latest. An exploration of a much-misunderstood notion.
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Euthyphro Dilemma, Divine Simplicity, and Modal Collapse
Top o' the Stack. Another deep dive into one of the gnarliest conundra in natural theology. The problem may be cast in the mold of an aporetic tetrad: 1) Classical theism is untenable if the ED cannot be defeated. 2) The ED can be defeated only if DDS is true. 3) DDS entails the collapse…
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William E. Mann, God, Modality, and Morality
Vallicella, William F. (2016) "William E. Mann, GOD, MODALITY, AND MORALITY," Faith and Philosophy: Journal of the Society of Christian Philosophers: Vol. 33 : Iss. 3 , Article 8. DOI: 10.5840/faithphil201633368 Available here. A long and meaty review article including a discussion of divine simplicity and Mann's approach thereto.
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Can a Necessary Being Depend for its Existence on a Necessary Being?
Brian Bosse raised this question over the phone the other day. This re-post from February 2010 answers it. ………………………….. According to the Athanasian Creed, the Persons of the Trinity, though each of them uncreated and eternal and necessary, are related as follows. The Father is unbegotten. The Son is begotten by the Father, but not made…
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If Someone is Walking, is He Necessarily Walking? DDS and Modal Collapse
In an article I am studying by Daniel J. Pedersen and Christopher Lilley, "Divine Simplicity, God's Freedom, and the Supposed Problem of Modal Collapse," (Journal of Reformed Theology 16, 2022, 127-147), the authors quote Boethius: . . . if you know that someone is walking, he must necessarily be walking. (Consolation, v. 6) They then…
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If God is Simple, How can the World be Contingent?
This entry is an offshoot of the earlier discussion of classical theism and its difference from theistic personalism. These labels have the meaning here than they had in that earlier discussion. Classical theism is committed to all three of the following: 1) God is simple. 2) God freely created the world in the libertarian 'could…
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It Ain’t Necessarily So: On Not Confusing the Modal with the Temporal
If someone says, ‘Houses sell above the asking price around here,’ it is idiomatically correct, if not quite grammatical, to respond, ‘Not necessarily’ or 'It ain't necessarily so.' ‘Not necessarily’ in this context means not always. Its meaning is not modal, but temporal: there are times when the houses sell above asking price, and times…
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Presentism and Actualism: Tenseless Existence and Amodal Existence
The analogy between presentism and actualism has often been noted. An unpacking of the analogy may prove fruitful if it doesn't perplex us further. Rough formulations of the two doctrines are as follows: P. Only the (temporally) present exists. A. Only the actual exists. Now one of the problems that has been worrying us is…