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Is the Argument from Degrees contradictory to the 3rd Law of Thermodynamics?
#11
RE: Is the Argument from Degrees contradictory to the 3rd Law of Thermodynamics?
Degrees of perfection has nothing to do with thermodynamics.
<insert profound quote here>
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#12
RE: Is the Argument from Degrees contradictory to the 3rd Law of Thermodynamics?
Yes.

No.


Possibly.


Does it come in blue?


Why won't the whales save themselves?


I like strangling budgies.

Playing Cluedo with my mum while I was at Uni:

"You did WHAT?  With WHO?  WHERE???"
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#13
RE: Is the Argument from Degrees contradictory to the 3rd Law of Thermodynamics?
on the contrary, thermodynamics tells god what perfection means.
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#14
RE: Is the Argument from Degrees contradictory to the 3rd Law of Thermodynamics?
(June 21, 2023 at 3:34 pm)Neo-Scholastic Wrote: Degrees of perfection has nothing to do with thermodynamics.

Thomas Aquinas was talking about properties in general, not just the property of perfection.
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#15
RE: Is the Argument from Degrees contradictory to the 3rd Law of Thermodynamics?
How is the entropy going to a fixed value (usually considered to be 0) and absolute zero is approached relevant to the argument at all?
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#16
RE: Is the Argument from Degrees contradictory to the 3rd Law of Thermodynamics?
(June 21, 2023 at 4:35 pm)FlatAssembler Wrote:
(June 21, 2023 at 3:34 pm)Neo-Scholastic Wrote: Degrees of perfection has nothing to do with thermodynamics.

Thomas Aquinas was talking about properties in general, not just the property of perfection.

No, he was talking about perfection. This is why it’s known as ‘the degrees of perfection argument’.

Boru
‘I can’t be having with this.’ - Esmeralda Weatherwax
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#17
RE: Is the Argument from Degrees contradictory to the 3rd Law of Thermodynamics?
(June 21, 2023 at 6:28 pm)BrianSoddingBoru4 Wrote:
(June 21, 2023 at 4:35 pm)FlatAssembler Wrote: Thomas Aquinas was talking about properties in general, not just the property of perfection.

No, he was talking about perfection. This is why it’s known as ‘the degrees of perfection argument’.

Boru

So, he wasn't saying "If there are two things which have some property to a larger and a smaller extent, there has to be a thing which has that same property to a maximal possible degree."? I am quite sure he was saying that, he even used hotness and fire as an example.
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#18
RE: Is the Argument from Degrees contradictory to the 3rd Law of Thermodynamics?
(June 21, 2023 at 10:49 pm)FlatAssembler Wrote:
(June 21, 2023 at 6:28 pm)BrianSoddingBoru4 Wrote: No, he was talking about perfection. This is why it’s known as ‘the degrees of perfection argument’.

Boru

So, he wasn't saying "If there are two things which have some property to a larger and a smaller extent, there has to be a thing which has that same property to a maximal possible degree."? I am quite sure he was saying that, he even used hotness and fire as an example.

Yes, that's what he was saying. If A is less hot than B and B is less hot than C and C is less hot than D, etc, eventually you'd get to a state of maximal, perfect hotness (probably Z to the nth). But he also talked about the same thing with the quality of goodness, to show that eventually, you'd reach a Thing with maximal, perfect goodness, and call this Thing 'God'.

The whole mishegas was an attempt to show that all classes of things exist in greater or lesser degrees of perfection, hence the name of the argument.

Boru
‘I can’t be having with this.’ - Esmeralda Weatherwax
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#19
RE: Is the Argument from Degrees contradictory to the 3rd Law of Thermodynamics?
It's a surprisingly good argument, but only if you believed that gods would be subject to natural law.

God, as envisioned by the tradition St Tommy was cribbing and bastardizing, could indeed reach 0k...and if you think that's impossible, well, exactly! God is miracle all the way up, and all the way down. Maximally miraculous. God possesses all properties, all maximal, and possesses them all in a different way than anything else.
I am the Infantry. I am my country’s strength in war, her deterrent in peace. I am the heart of the fight… wherever, whenever. I carry America’s faith and honor against her enemies. I am the Queen of Battle. I am what my country expects me to be, the best trained Soldier in the world. In the race for victory, I am swift, determined, and courageous, armed with a fierce will to win. Never will I fail my country’s trust. Always I fight on…through the foe, to the objective, to triumph overall. If necessary, I will fight to my death. By my steadfast courage, I have won more than 200 years of freedom. I yield not to weakness, to hunger, to cowardice, to fatigue, to superior odds, For I am mentally tough, physically strong, and morally straight. I forsake not, my country, my mission, my comrades, my sacred duty. I am relentless. I am always there, now and forever. I AM THE INFANTRY! FOLLOW ME!
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#20
RE: Is the Argument from Degrees contradictory to the 3rd Law of Thermodynamics?
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