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”
Category Archives: Actual Existence
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”
The Analytic Thomist 