♠ Five of Spades
the cosmological family
The Particularization Argument
al-Juwayni — The Imam of the Two Sanctuaries
Kitāb al-Irshād ilā qawāṭiʿ al-adilla fī uṣūl al-iʿtiqād (A Guide to Conclusive Proofs)

DemonstrativeConcludes that something exists.
- Argument form
- Disjunctive syllogism (determiner necessitates or chooses; not necessitates)
- Concludes to
- Intelligent agent (a determiner of the universe that chooses)
- Premise ground
- Metaphysical (what is one way among many requires a determiner; a nature-necessitating cause settles nothing)
- Modal strength
- Actual
- What it licenses
- Period
- Medieval (c. 1070s)
- Tradition
- Kalam (Ash'arite)
Further reading
- Source text, public domain
Kitāb al-Irshād ilā qawāṭiʿ al-adilla fī uṣūl al-iʿtiqādAIIQAFUI_00.pdf and AIIQAFUI_01.pdf - 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.
ergocards.com/particularization
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