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Single Idea 21272

[filed under theme 28. God / B. Proving God / 3. Proofs of Evidence / a. Cosmological Proof ]

Full Idea

More and less are predicated of different things according as they resemble in their different ways something which is the maximum. The maximum of a genus is the cause of all in that genus. So there must be something causing the perfections of all beings.

Gist of Idea

Way 4: the source of all qualities is their maximum, so something (God) causes all perfections

Source

Thomas Aquinas (Summa Theologicae [1265], Ia,Q02,Art3,Reply)

Book Ref

'The Existence of God', ed/tr. Hick,John [Macmillan 1964], p.85

A Reaction

[compressed] The argument makes a startling jump from each quality (like heat or nobility) having a maximum, to their being a single entity (a 'being' at that) which is the sole source of all human perfections.

The 21 ideas with the same theme [existence of nature proves God exists]:

8144 Brahman is the Uncaused Cause [Anon (Upan)]
21257 Self-generating motion is clearly superior to all other kinds of motion [Plato]
21258 The only possible beginning for the endless motions of reality is something self-generated [Plato]
21261 Self-moving soul has to be the oldest thing there is [Plato]
5699 If matter wasn't everlasting, everything would have disappeared by now [Lucretius]
5760 The power through which creation remains in existence and motion I call 'God' [Boethius]
5614 If you assume that there must be a necessary being, you can't say which being has this quality [Kant on Aquinas]
21269 Way 1: the infinite chain of potential-to-actual movement has to have a first mover [Aquinas]
21270 Way 2: no effect without a cause, and this cannot go back to infinity, so there is First Cause [Aquinas]
21271 Way 3: contingent beings eventually vanish, so continuity needs a necessary being [Aquinas]
21272 Way 4: the source of all qualities is their maximum, so something (God) causes all perfections [Aquinas]
22124 We can't infer the infinity of God from creation ex nihilo [Duns Scotus, by Dumont]
3634 We can't prove a first cause from our inability to grasp infinity [Descartes]
12566 We exist, so there is Being, which requires eternal being [Locke]
19418 Mechanics shows that all motion originates in other motion, so there is a Prime Mover [Leibniz]
2099 The existence of God, and all metaphysics, follows from the Principle of Sufficient Reason [Leibniz]
21254 A chain of events requires a cause for the whole as well as the parts, yet the chain is just a sum of parts [Hume]
1435 If something must be necessary so that something exists rather than nothing, why can't the universe be necessary? [Hume]
5598 If you prove God cosmologically, by a regress in the sequences of causes, you can't abandon causes at the end [Kant]
6205 To know if this world must have been created by God, we would need to know all other possible worlds [Kant]
20706 A distinct cause of the universe can't be material (which would be part of the universe) [Davies,B]