Scholastic regress arguments

Scholastic regress arguments

Feser

...Here are some features common to such arguments.  First, and to repeat, the basic general pattern is to argue that the existence of items having a certain feature in a borrowed or derivative way presupposes something having that feature in an intrinsic way.  In one case the feature in question is causal power, in another it is meaning, in another it is epistemic justification, and in yet another it is goodness or desirability.  But despite this significant difference in subject matter, the basic structure of the inference is the same.

Second, although the arguments are set up by way of a description of a regress of some kind, the length of the regress is not actually what is doing the key work in the arguments.  In particular, the arguments, on close inspection, are not primarily concerned to rule out infinities...

...Third, the arguments all essentially purport to identify something that must be true of metaphysical necessity.  They are not merely probabilistic in character, or arguments to the best explanation...

...Hence, whether one accepts such an argument or not, the claims of empirical science are not going to settle the matter, because the arguments are conducted at a level deeper than empirical science.  The very practice of empirical science presupposes causality, meaning, knowledge, and action.  The arguments in question, since they are about the necessary preconditions of those things, are also about the necessary preconditions of science.  They are paradigmatically philosophical in nature...

Scholastic regress arguments

Feser

very thoughtful analysis.