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Single Idea 19401
[filed under theme 7. Existence / A. Nature of Existence / 5. Reason for Existence
]
Full Idea
The sufficient reason for God's choice can be found only in the fitness (convenance) or in the degree of perfection that the several worlds possess.
Gist of Idea
God's sufficient reason for choosing reality is in the fitness or perfection of possibilities
Source
Gottfried Leibniz (Exigency to Exist in Essences [1690], p.92)
Book Ref
Leibniz,Gottfried: 'Leibniz Selections', ed/tr. Wiener,Philip P. [Scribners 1951], p.92
A Reaction
The 'fitness' of a world and its 'perfection' seem very different things. A piece of a jigsaw can have wonderful fitness, without perfection. Occasionally you get that sinking feeling with metaphysicians that they just make it up.
Related Idea
Idea 19400
Possibles demand existence, so as many of them as possible must actually exist [Leibniz]
The
18 ideas
with the same theme
[why do things (or anything at all) exist?]:
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458
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Nothing could come out of nothing, and existence could never completely cease
[Empedocles]
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1707
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Maybe necessity and non-necessity are the first principles of ontology
[Aristotle]
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17179
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There must always be a reason or cause why some triangle does or does not exist
[Spinoza]
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19400
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Possibles demand existence, so as many of them as possible must actually exist
[Leibniz]
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19401
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God's sufficient reason for choosing reality is in the fitness or perfection of possibilities
[Leibniz]
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5062
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First: there must be reasons; Second: why anything at all?; Third: why this?
[Leibniz]
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7696
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Leibniz first asked 'why is there something rather than nothing?'
[Leibniz, by Jacquette]
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19341
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There must be a straining towards existence in the essence of all possible things
[Leibniz]
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19428
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Because something does exist, there must be a drive in possible things towards existence
[Leibniz]
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3942
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I do not believe in the existence of anything, if I see no reason to believe it
[Berkeley]
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5646
|
Hegel gives an ontological proof of the existence of everything
[Hegel, by Scruton]
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16007
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I assume existence, rather than reasoning towards it
[Kierkegaard]
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7692
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Being is maximal consistency
[Jacquette]
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7687
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Existence is completeness and consistency
[Jacquette]
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19662
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It is necessarily contingent that there is one thing rather than another - so something must exist
[Meillassoux]
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17320
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Either p is true or not-p is true, so something is true, so something exists
[Liggins]
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19482
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Current physics says matter and antimatter should have reduced to light at the big bang
[New Sci.]
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19483
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CP violation shows a decay imbalance in matter and antimatter, leading to matter's dominance
[New Sci.]
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