RE: Disproving Odin - An Experiment in arguing with a theist with Theist logic
March 16, 2018 at 3:15 pm
(March 16, 2018 at 3:04 pm)SteveII Wrote: So this is even more interesting. There is no material cause to a novel or symphony (only an efficient cause). Both are abstract objects. Yet they can be a cause of their own once read or heard. You can be compelled to act by a novel or emotionally moved by a symphony. In the same way, ideas (conveyed through language) are not material and yet can have so much causal power. So not only is it possible that the immaterial is the efficient cause on the material (us), but it happens constantly.
That is an interesting point, Steve.
A real brain-twister: In your example, a symphony would have to be related to a material cause (for example, a composer and a stack of manuscript paper). There might be an immaterial cause behind that, though (for example, a young musician hearing an inspiring piece and deciding to become a composer). I can conceive of an alternating series of material/efficient causation underlying a lot of things. What do you think?
