Contingency Proof in the West
Journal Title: جستارهایی در فلسفه و کلام - Year 2009, Vol 41, Issue 82
Abstract
Contingency Proof is one of the oldest proofs of the existence of God, which enjoys numerous theological and philosophical expositions. What is examined in this article is the conventional form of this proof in the West, which has addressed the temporal contingency of universe and thereby demonstrated the existence of God. Its other expositions like essential contingency as well as substantial contingency, which are of special interest to Islamic philosophy, have either received no attention at all or not clearly stated. In this article, relying on the old and new scientific and theological sources of the West, the writer intends to reappraise and review this issue. Hereby, two rational proofs and two scientific arguments on its most significant premise have been presented. Its two rational proofs stress on the impossibility of actual infinite existence and the impossibility of addition to potential infinite and its transformation into actual infinite; and its two scientific arguments are adopted from the patterns of creation and thermodynamic principles. Bringing up various theories of the pros and cons among the philosophers and theologians, the article proceeds to present a critical review of the above issue.
Authors and Affiliations
Sayyid Murtaḍā ḤUsaynī ShāHrūDī
Keywords
Related Articles
- EP ID EP202461
- DOI 10.22067/philosophy.v41i1.3177
- Views 131
- Downloads 0
Comparison of Skeptical Interpretation with Naturalistic Interpretation of the Philosophy of Hume
Was Hume really a skeptic empiricist? The common picture that existed about Hume sometime ago outlined him as an empiricist who, contrary to his preceding empiricists, could deduce skepticism which was a corollary of emp...
Similitude from the Viewpoint of Ghazālī and Avicenna
Relying on and refuting some viewpoints of the theosophists concerning God as being Creator, Ghazālī contravenes the similitude between the Exalted God and the creatures, since he believes that according to these argumen...
Spiritual Sultanate of Imam al-Riḍā (A.S.) A Deliberation on the Conceptual Association between Divine Dominion and Calmness of the Heart in Ḥadīth of Imam al-Riḍā (A.S.)
“Spiritual Sultanate” is among the phrasings that Qāḍī Sa‘īd Qummī has used about Imamate. This concept has a direct relation with the Imam’s sovereignty in the world of Divine Commandment or malakūt (Divine Dominion). F...
Nūr al-Dīn Kāshānī and his Miṣafāt al-Ashbāḥ wa Mijalāt al-Arwāḥ
Attaining and understanding the truth will not be feasible except through mystical wayfaring, which would be possible only through assimilation into sharī‘a (religious law) and comprehension of its mysteries; the spiritu...
Muṭahharī and the Neo-Religious Thinking
Neo-religious (Islamic) thinkers have frequently dealt with the issue of decline and revival of Islamic civilization and are thereby engaged in tradition and modernity. They have adopted two different approaches in confr...