Friday, April 08, 2011

Aquinas's Critique of the Argument from the Actual Infinite

This post, from Siris, argues that St. Thomas Aquinas provided the basis for rejecting versions of the Kalam Cosmological Argument that appeal to an actual infinite, beating Wes Morriston to the punch by eight and a half centuries.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

This is a read that will resonate with me, but in regards to this:

"Therefore it is impossible to show that it is necessary for the world to have a beginning, and therefore to demonstrate that it did."

(bold emphasis mine).

I don't quite see how the latter part of the statement (the portion after the comma)follows from the former.

I would think there is a degree of demonstration (e.g. evidence based) that is possible, even if the thing to be demonstrated cannot be shown to be/ does not fall under the category of a necessary truth.

But of course, if by "demonstrate" he means in an absolute/ doubtless sense, then I would agree..