Author Archives: robkoons

In Search of the Uncausable

Thomas draws on a key insight from Plotinus: an uncausable entity must not just be simple—the fact of its existence must also be simple. Any compounding of elements in this fact creates the potentiality for causation. For something to be uncausable in the relevant sense, there must be a metaphysical explanation for its lack ofContinue reading “In Search of the Uncausable”

Six Accounts of Actuality: Taking Stock

In earlier posts I have set out a range of solutions to the problem of accounting for the nature of actual existence: possibilism, actualism, and theories of predication. In this post, I would like to take stock. We have a total of six viable solutions to the problem of actuality, compatible with a broadly AristotelianContinue reading “Six Accounts of Actuality: Taking Stock”

Five Theories of Predication

How can possibilists account for actuality as an absolute feature of some possible entities and not others? As we saw, we cannot treat actual existence as another accident or accident-like entity, since such entities would have to be included in all possible worlds, whether actual or not. Instead, the factor that explains something’s actuality willContinue reading “Five Theories of Predication”

Two Problems with Actualism

Given the problems with Possibilism, it might seem that we should abandon possibilism and embrace actualism. Actualism certainly captures the right kind of inequality. Actual things are real, and there simply are no non-actual things. Absolutely everything is actual! At the same time, there could have been things that do not exist. Perhaps there couldContinue reading “Two Problems with Actualism”

Divine Simplicity: Possibilism

In article 4 of Summa Theologiae I, Question 3, Thomas reaches the crux of the matter: his claim that God’s essence is identical to His act of existence. This article provides Thomas with the crucial bridge from the Five Ways to the standard list of divine attributes (infinity, perfection, and so on), as well asContinue reading “Divine Simplicity: Possibilism”

God’s Identity with His Essence

Thomas explicitly asserts that God is numerically identical to His essence. God does not have divinity as His nature: He is His own divinity. As we have seen, God is not an abstract object, a post rem property, or a universal. So, what could it mean to say that God is identical to His essenceContinue reading “God’s Identity with His Essence”

Aquinas on Divine Simplicity

In the Question immediately following the Five Ways (Question 3), Thomas turns to establishing the simplicity of the First Cause. This simplicity consists of eight characteristics, corresponding to the eight articles of Question 3: Of these eight, it is characteristics 3 and 4 that are most central to Thomas’s natural theology, and most controversial. GodContinue reading “Aquinas on Divine Simplicity”

Anomalies and Imperfectly Unified Substances, II

In this post, I will deal with three additional anomalies, possible exceptions to the NSIS principle (No Substance in a Substance): (i) manufacturing organisms from scratch, (ii) borderline cases between organisms and communities, and (iii) transitional forms in evolution. If Hylomorphism is true, it should be impossible to manufacture a living organism from inorganic materials,Continue reading “Anomalies and Imperfectly Unified Substances, II”