Aquinas authored (or perhaps customized) five arguments for the existence of God called, not-so-creatively, the "five ways." The third way argues that the existence of contingent beings (i.e., beings that can go out of existence) requires a necessary being. And not just any necessary being; rather, one that does not derive its necessity from any other.
This argument has been criticized for committing the fallacy of composition when its initial argument claims that because each component in the universe can go out of existence therefore the universe as a whole could go entirely out of existence.
Apart from noting the fallacy of composition (which I think may not be an insurmountable problem) have the following problem. Aquinas begins the argument by proposing that since everything material CAN corrupt, therefore it must at some time do so (i.e., go out of existence), but he clearly believes that some material things are incorruptible: the spheres that guide the planets, etc. How do they figure in this argument? Are they necessary beings? So it would seem! In which case the second part of the argument would apply to them (as necessary beings that rely on something other than themselves as the source of their necessity).
This argument has been criticized for committing the fallacy of composition when its initial argument claims that because each component in the universe can go out of existence therefore the universe as a whole could go entirely out of existence.
Apart from noting the fallacy of composition (which I think may not be an insurmountable problem) have the following problem. Aquinas begins the argument by proposing that since everything material CAN corrupt, therefore it must at some time do so (i.e., go out of existence), but he clearly believes that some material things are incorruptible: the spheres that guide the planets, etc. How do they figure in this argument? Are they necessary beings? So it would seem! In which case the second part of the argument would apply to them (as necessary beings that rely on something other than themselves as the source of their necessity).
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