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♠ Eight of Spades

the cosmological family

The Fourth Way (Degrees of Perfection)

St Thomas Aquinas — The Angelic Doctor

Summa Theologiae (Summa Theologica)

The Fourth Way (Degrees of Perfection), card face

DemonstrativeConcludes that something exists.

Argument form

Modus ponens (chained: maximum exists, is convertible, is cause)

Concludes to

Infinite or maximal being (something greatest in being; also the cause of the perfections in all else)

Premise ground

Metaphysical (degrees of a perfection are measured against a maximum, which causes them)

Modal strength

Actual

What it licenses

maximal perfection (in being, goodness, truth, nobility)
cause of the world (of those perfections in all else)

Period

Medieval (1265–74)

Tradition

Thomist (Platonic in source)

Further reading

Source text, public domain
Summa Theologiaehttps://www.corpusthomisticum.org/sth1002.html
A scholarly account
Read an exposition of the argument
A principal objection
Read the objection in full

This formulation is ours, composed from the primary source and compressed to fit the card; the argument admits of other statements. Objections have been made to every argument in the deck; where one is linked above, it is chosen by us, not written by us.

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