Avicenna, Aquinas, and Leibniz on the argument from contingency
E. Feser
E. Feser
Quote:Avicenna, Aquinas, and Leibniz all present versions of what would today be called the argument from contingency for the existence of a divine necessary being. Their versions are interestingly different, despite Aquinas’s having been deeply influenced by Avicenna and Leibniz’s having been familiar with Aquinas. I think all three of them are good arguments, though I won’t defend them here. I discussed Avicenna’s argument in an earlier post. I defend Aquinas’s in my book Aquinas, at pp. 90-99. I defend Leibniz’s in chapter 5 of my book Five Proofs of the Existence of God. Here I merely want to compare and contrast the arguments.
Because I want to focus on what I take to be the main thrust of each of the arguments rather get bogged down in exegetical details, I will offer my own paraphrases of the arguments rather than quote directly from any of these thinkers’ texts.
'Historically, we may regard materialism as a system of dogma set up to combat orthodox dogma...Accordingly we find that, as ancient orthodoxies disintegrate, materialism more and more gives way to scepticism.'
- Bertrand Russell
- Bertrand Russell