PHIL-3160 Lecture 2: Day 2 Class Notes
30 Mar 2016
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Class 2 Lecture Notes
Leibniz: Necessary and Contingent Truths: …a transition which can have no end…
Further, one contingent thing is not really the cause of another, even though it seems so to
us.” Each substance’s succession of states is set at the moment of creation.
Each substance’s succession of states is sustained by an active force inherent in it, and the
succession of every substance is such as to create the appearance of causal interactions.
The claim seems to be that all causal successions are essential; i.e., none are accidental.
All causal efficacy is ultimately teleological, though science studies the efficient causes
in virtue of which finite minds come to apprehend true causes.
Essential vs. Accidental causal successions: The arm moves the hand. The hand moves
the stick. The stick moves the rock. How do we explain the rock’s motion? Abraham
begat Isaac. Issac begat Jacob. We can explain Jacob’s existence without having to
explain the whole causal chain.
Leibniz: Necessary and Contingent Truths: The relation of mover to moved cannot yield a
full causal explanation, because such analysis can never come to an end, “for we shall
always arrive at smaller bodies without end.”
i.e., such analysis would entail an infinite regress of explanations. But if explanation
regresses ad infinitum no explanation is ever reached; i.e., the world is unintelligible.
i.e., the infinite divisibility of matter entails that explanation of contingent effect in terms
of contingent cause would never come to an end.
The rationally satisfying, ultimate explanation of a contingent effect lies in teleological
explanation. i.e., in a reason of this form: contingent effect x happened because just this
possible world is best; and x contributes to this possible world being best in such and
such manner.
“Propositions into which existence and time enter” do not admit of the kind of
“terminable resolution by which their truth may appear.”
Thus, we must continue to inquire from our finite perspective, understanding that
ultimate explanation, i.e. the explanation for “the whole series of the universe,” would
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