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Fuller arguments are taken up in later sections of the Summa theologiae, and other publications. For example, in the Summa contra gentiles SCG I, 13, 30, he clarifies that his arguments do not assume or presuppose that there was a first moment in time. A commentator notes that Thomas does not think that God could be first in a temporal sense ...
A cosmological argument can also sometimes be referred to as an argument from universal causation, an argument from first cause, the causal argument or the prime mover argument. The concept of causation is a principal underpinning idea in all cosmological arguments, particularly in affirming the necessity for a First Cause .
He contended that Copleston's argument from contingency is a fallacy, and that there are better explanations for our moral and religious experience: First, as to the metaphysical argument: I don't admit the connotations of such a term as "contingent" or the possibility of explanation in Father Copleston's sense.
In logic, contingency is the feature of a statement making it neither necessary nor impossible. [ 1 ] [ 2 ] Contingency is a fundamental concept of modal logic . Modal logic concerns the manner, or mode , in which statements are true.
contingency; metaphysical; Degree; Desire; Experience; Existential choice; ... In the philosophy of religion, an ontological argument is a deductive philosophical ...
Argumentum ex motu, or the argument of the unmoved mover; 2. Argumentum ex ratione causae efficientis, or the argument of the first cause; 3. Argumentum ex contingentia, or the argument from contingency; 4. Argumentum ex gradu, or the argument from degree; and 5. Argumentum ex fine, or the teleological argument.
Philosopher Brian Leftow has argued that the question cannot have a causal explanation (as any cause must itself have a cause) or a contingent explanation (as the factors giving the contingency must pre-exist), and that if there is an answer, it must be something that exists necessarily (i.e., something that just exists, rather than is caused ...
Contingency was especially emphasized by Stephen Jay Gould, particularly in his 1989 book Wonderful Life. [ 1 ] [ 2 ] Gould used the thought experiment of rewinding the "tape of life" to the distant past, and argued that even small changes to history would result in evolutionary outcomes very different from our world.