♦ Ten of Diamonds
the ontological and a priori family
Argument from Absence of a Preventing Cause or Reason
Baruch Spinoza
Ethica ordine geometrico demonstrata (Ethics)
DemonstrativeConcludes that something exists.
- Argument form
- Reductio ad absurdum (elimination of cases: every reason for non-existence is excluded)
- Concludes to
- God as such (a substance consisting of infinite attributes, existing necessarily)
- Premise ground
- Metaphysical (a cause or reason must be assigned for existence and for non-existence alike)
- Modal strength
- Necessary
- What it licenses
- Period
- Seventeenth Century (1677)
- Tradition
- Rationalist (Spinozist)
Further reading
- 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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