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To: general_re
Actually, David Hume wrecked it pretty thoroughly about 200 years ago.

...and actually Immanuel Kant wrecked David Hume pretty thoroughly so Aristotle is still valid. However, if you want to back up your statement with more than a "because I say so" and show us how Hume "wrecked" Aristotle, I am willing to play.

232 posted on 03/12/2002 5:29:46 PM PST by gore3000
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To: gore3000
and actually Immanuel Kant wrecked David Hume pretty thoroughly so Aristotle is still valid.

Not where the prime mover/first cause argument was concerned. Kant objected to the first cause argument for his own reasons - according to Kant, causality was itself a projection of mind on to the world of things. Causality, so far as we know, only applies to the world of sensory experience, Kant would say, so there is no reason to think that causality applies to things beyond that, especially not to something that is supposed to transcend it completely, like God. And Kant did that very intentionally - he wanted to place God beyond the reaches of reason altogether, which necessarily meant denying the "rational" arguments of Aristotle and Aquinas.

So, if that's being rescued by Kant, I'd hate to see what happens when he sets out to destroy a thing ;)

Maybe you want to re-read Critique of Pure Reason, and while you're at it, you can check out Hume's Dialogue Concerning Natural Religion.

236 posted on 03/12/2002 7:52:25 PM PST by general_re
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