Divine Simplicity and the Theory of Action

The modal collapse argument states that the traditional doctrine of divine simplicity entails that God necessarily creates whatever he creates and also that all creatures necessarily perform whatever actions they perform. In response to these objections, many authors argue that God’s willing to cre...

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Main Author: Clemente Huneeus
Format: Article
Language:deu
Published: Catholic University of Louvain 2024-12-01
Series:TheoLogica
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Online Access:https://ojs.uclouvain.be/index.php/theologica/article/view/82053
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author Clemente Huneeus
author_facet Clemente Huneeus
author_sort Clemente Huneeus
collection DOAJ
description The modal collapse argument states that the traditional doctrine of divine simplicity entails that God necessarily creates whatever he creates and also that all creatures necessarily perform whatever actions they perform. In response to these objections, many authors argue that God’s willing to create this precise world and God’s knowing everything about individual creatures are at least partially extrinsic or Cambridge properties (i.e., the truthmaker of the respective propositions is, in part, a fact about something contingent other than God). This paper argues for a general view of action, in which such properties can turn out to be at least partially extrinsic. Section 1 explains why responding to the modal collapse argument requires that part of the truthmaker relating God to contingent facts be extrinsic to God, and that it is only in this part that contingency lies. Section 2 argues that this can be generally so in certain class of causal relations, where the agent remains intrinsically the same no matter the precise effect produced. Section 3 shows that free volition is at some level one of those relations, and section 4 offers some brief remarks about the difficulties that still remain in the case of knowledge.
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spelling doaj-art-29a24178625f47dbbfaf20e640aa8b232025-08-20T02:49:17ZdeuCatholic University of LouvainTheoLogica2593-02652024-12-019110.14428/thl.v9i1.82053Divine Simplicity and the Theory of ActionClemente Huneeus 0Universidad de los Andes (Chile) & Universidad Gabriela Mistral The modal collapse argument states that the traditional doctrine of divine simplicity entails that God necessarily creates whatever he creates and also that all creatures necessarily perform whatever actions they perform. In response to these objections, many authors argue that God’s willing to create this precise world and God’s knowing everything about individual creatures are at least partially extrinsic or Cambridge properties (i.e., the truthmaker of the respective propositions is, in part, a fact about something contingent other than God). This paper argues for a general view of action, in which such properties can turn out to be at least partially extrinsic. Section 1 explains why responding to the modal collapse argument requires that part of the truthmaker relating God to contingent facts be extrinsic to God, and that it is only in this part that contingency lies. Section 2 argues that this can be generally so in certain class of causal relations, where the agent remains intrinsically the same no matter the precise effect produced. Section 3 shows that free volition is at some level one of those relations, and section 4 offers some brief remarks about the difficulties that still remain in the case of knowledge. https://ojs.uclouvain.be/index.php/theologica/article/view/82053Divine simplicitymodal collapse argumentdivine volitiondivine knowledgetheory of action
spellingShingle Clemente Huneeus
Divine Simplicity and the Theory of Action
TheoLogica
Divine simplicity
modal collapse argument
divine volition
divine knowledge
theory of action
title Divine Simplicity and the Theory of Action
title_full Divine Simplicity and the Theory of Action
title_fullStr Divine Simplicity and the Theory of Action
title_full_unstemmed Divine Simplicity and the Theory of Action
title_short Divine Simplicity and the Theory of Action
title_sort divine simplicity and the theory of action
topic Divine simplicity
modal collapse argument
divine volition
divine knowledge
theory of action
url https://ojs.uclouvain.be/index.php/theologica/article/view/82053
work_keys_str_mv AT clementehuneeus divinesimplicityandthetheoryofaction