RE: The Principle of Contingent Causation: The Impossibility of Infinite Regress.
July 4, 2023 at 10:27 pm
(July 4, 2023 at 7:32 pm)Belacqua Wrote:(July 4, 2023 at 9:42 am)Thumpalumpacus Wrote: None of this addresses the fact that at its root the argument requires special pleading.
~ Everything that comes to be and passes away is contingent.
~ The causal chain of contingent things cannot be an infinite regress (for reasons explained elsewhere).
~ Therefore there needs to be one non-contingent thing at the origin of the chain of contingent things.
Which part of this is special pleading?
Just to play devil's advocate, the concept of contigency is a Hegelian dialictic. Positing contingecy as a category of being implies a catagory of non-contingent being, does it not. In the same way you cannot have slaves without a master. It is not special pleading so much as begging the question by framing the necessary being demonstration within the distinction between contingent and non-contingent being.
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