Aquinas’ Third Way Modalized

1998 ◽  
pp. 147-155
Author(s):  
Robert E. Maydole
Keyword(s):  
Modal Logic ◽  
Cosmological Argument ◽  
Existence Of God ◽  
Third Way ◽  
The Third

The Third Way is the most interesting and insightful of Aquinas' five arguments for the existence of God, even though it is invalid and has some false premises. With the help of a somewhat weak modal logic, however, the Third Way can be transformed into a argument which is certainly valid and plausibly sound. Much of what Aquinas asserted in the Third Way is possibly true even if it is not actually true. Instead of assuming, for example, that things which are contingent fail to exist at some time, we need only assume that contingent things possibly fail to exist at some time. Likewise, we can replace the assumption that if all things fail to exist at some time then there is a time when nothing exists, with the corresponding assumption that if all things possibly fail to exist at some time then possibly there is a time when nothing exists. These and other similar replacements suffice to produce a cogent cosmological argument.

scholarly journals Gödel: The Third Degree

2017 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Graham Oppy
Keyword(s):  
Modal Logic ◽  
Ontological Argument ◽  
Third Order ◽  
Existence Of God ◽  
The Third

Graham Oppy explores formulations of Gödel’s ontological argument for the existence of God in third-order modal logic and argues that these arguments do not allow us to decide between theistic and naturalistic positions.

scholarly journals Al-Ghazālī and Descartes on Defeating Skepticism

2020 ◽  
Vol 45 ◽  
pp. 133-148
Author(s):  
Saja Parvizian ◽  
Keyword(s):  
The Other ◽  
Close Reading ◽  
Natural Light ◽  
Cosmological Argument ◽  
Existence Of God ◽  
Divine Intervention ◽  
The Third ◽  
Meditations On First Philosophy ◽  
Mind And Body ◽  
Key Features

Commentators have noticed the striking similarities between the skep­tical arguments of al-Ghazālī’s Deliverance from Error and Descartes’ Discourse on Method and Meditations on First Philosophy. However, commentators agree that their solutions to skepticism are radically different. Al-Ghazālī does not use rational proofs to defeat skepticism; rather, he relies on a supernatural light [nūr] sent by God to rescue him from skepticism. Descartes, on the other hand, relies on the natural light of reason [lumen naturale] to prove the existence of God, mind, and body. In this paper, I argue that Descartes’ solution is closer to al-Ghazālī’s than commentators have allowed. A close reading of the cosmological argument of the Third Meditation reveals that there is also a type of divine intervention em­ployed in the Meditations, which helps Descartes defeat skepticism. This reading may buttress the case made by some that al-Ghazālī influenced Descartes; but more importantly, it requires us to rethink key features of Descartes’ epistemology.

A Proposed Solution of St. Thomas Aquinas’s “Third Way” Through Pros Hen Analogy

Philotheos ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 19 (1) ◽  
pp. 85-105
Author(s):  
Jeffrey Dirk Wilson ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Basic Principle ◽  
Central Point ◽  
Infinite Regress ◽  
Existence Of God ◽  
Third Way ◽  
The Third ◽  
Necessary Being ◽  
Reductio Ad Absurdum ◽  
Per Se ◽  
Aristotelian Metaphysics

St. Thomas’s Third Way to prove the existence of God, “Of Possibility and Necessity” (ST 1, q.2, art. 3, response) is one of the most controverted passages in the entire Thomistic corpus. The central point of dispute is that if there were only possible beings, each at some time would cease to exist and, therefore, at some point in time nothing would exist, and because something cannot come from nothing, in such an eventuality, nothing would exist now—a reductio ad absurdum conclusion. Therefore, at least one necessary being must exist. Generations of critics and defenders have contended over St. Thomas’s proof. This article argues that the principle of pros hen analogy is implicit in the Third Way and that once identified explains the ontological dependency of possible beings, as secondary analogates, on the first necessary being, as primary analogate. Thus, without the necessary being as primary analogate, possible beings simply could not exist. The fact that they do exist is evidence for the existence of the necessary being. St. Thomas makes synthesizes the principle of pros hen analogy, as found in Aristotle’s Metaphysics, with the Neoplatonic principle of participation. Aristotle develops pros hen analogy in contradistinction to univocal and equivocal predication as well as to genus in Metaphysics 4.2, 11.3, 12.3-5. Since Scotus and re-enforced by modern analytic logic, philosophers have almost universally regarded any kind of analogical predication as a sub-category of equivocal predication and, thus, implicitly occlude the possibility of considering pros hen analogy in their readings of the Third Way. Distinction of per se and per accidens infinite regress and of radical and natural contingency are also central to understanding the Third Way. While resolving apparent problems in the Third Way, the article also seeks to rehabilitate the doctrine of pros hen analogy as a basic principle in Thomistic and, indeed, Aristotelian metaphysics.

MOSE FOR EUS-GUIDED PANCREATIC TISSUE ACQUISITION: THE THIRD WAY

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
T Togliani ◽  
I Breoni ◽  
V Davì ◽  
N Mantovani ◽  
A Savioli ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Pancreatic Tissue ◽  
Third Way ◽  
The Third ◽  
Tissue Acquisition

Overcoming “The Third Way” Concept

2006 ◽  
pp. 126-134
Author(s):  
L. Evstigneeva ◽  
R. Evstigneev
Keyword(s):  
Economic Research ◽  
Economic Uncertainty ◽  
Third Way ◽  
The Third ◽  
Linear Approach ◽  
The World ◽  
Non Linear

“The Third Way” concept is still widespread all over the world. Growing socio-economic uncertainty makes the authors revise the concept. In the course of discussion with other authors they introduce a synergetic vision of the problem. That means in the first place changing a linear approach to the economic research for a non-linear one.

Practical Truth

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
David Charles
Keyword(s):  
Nicomachean Ethics ◽  
Third Way ◽  
The Third ◽  
Two Component ◽  
Major Competitor ◽  
Additional Support

This paper concerns Aristotle’s discussion of practical truth in Nicomachean Ethics VI.2.1139a17–b5. The essay falls into five sections. In the first three, I outline two styles of interpretation of Aristotle’s remarks and suggest that one of them (which I call ‘the third way’) gives a better reading than that offered by its major competitor (which I call ‘the two-component’ view). In the fourth I consider some texts in the remainder of NE VI which provide additional support for the third way of reading. In a brief concluding section, I seek to locate Aristotle’s view of practical truth, so understood, in a broader philosophical context.

scholarly journals The third way to 3D gravity

2015 ◽  
Vol 24 (12) ◽  
pp. 1544015 ◽  
Author(s):  
Eric Bergshoeff ◽  
Wout Merbis ◽  
Alasdair J. Routh ◽  
Paul K. Townsend
Keyword(s):  
Equations Of Motion ◽  
Massive Gravity ◽  
De Sitter ◽  
Gravitational Field Equation ◽  
Third Way ◽  
Metric Tensor ◽  
The Third ◽  
Higher Dimensional ◽  
Conservation Condition ◽  
3D Gravity

Consistency of Einstein’s gravitational field equation [Formula: see text] imposes a “conservation condition” on the [Formula: see text]-tensor that is satisfied by (i) matter stress tensors, as a consequence of the matter equations of motion and (ii) identically by certain other tensors, such as the metric tensor. However, there is a third way, overlooked until now because it implies a “nongeometrical” action: one not constructed from the metric and its derivatives alone. The new possibility is exemplified by the 3D “minimal massive gravity” model, which resolves the “bulk versus boundary” unitarity problem of topologically massive gravity with Anti-de Sitter asymptotics. Although all known examples of the third way are in three spacetime dimensions, the idea is general and could, in principle, apply to higher dimensional theories.

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