PHL 101 Lecture Notes - Lecture 9: Al-Ghazali, Bungee Cord, Subjunctive Possibility
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There is no necessary connection between a cause and effect. Fire is no the cause of cotton being incinerated. God is putting the fire here, and he"s making the cotton be there, and he makes the cotton burn (occasionalism) Ghazali doesn"t like this idea that god"s hands are tied. The impossible consists in affirming a thing conjointly with denying it, affirming the more specific while denying the more general, or affirming two things while negating one. What does not reduce to this is not impossible, and what is not impossible is within [god"s] power. incoherence, 17th discussion. Inflated basketball that"s not a sphere logically contradictory. Think of a miraculous occurrence, where god makes abraham"s garments not burn. Answer according to ghazali and avicenna, is no. That is not logically impossible, it"s just something we"re not used to seeing. According to avicenna, that might be impossible because of the causes (through another), but not impossible through itself (not logically impossible)
