Possibility of Existence and Necessity

Possibility of Existence and Necessity

Introduction

Thomas Aquinas argues that that God’s existence can be proven in five ways. In the third way, which this paper reconstructs, explains and criticizes, Aquinas argues that all things are capable of being in existence or not, suggesting that at one point they did not exist. He argues that existing things find their necessity to exist from others that have necessitated their existence. Eh reckons that, nothing can be both at the same time; thus, things are either existing or not existing. He goes ahead to put a claim that if everything is possible of not existing, at one time then, nothing existed. If this were true, nothing could have caused the existence of another, and nothing could be in existence even today, which cannot be true. Therefore, must have existed to cause the existence of other things, which people consider God. Reconstruction of his argument in the third way of proving existence of God is given below.

Reconstruction of Argument

 

1	When something exists, it cannot be out of existence. If something is not out of existence, it is therefore in existence. Therefore, something is there because it exists.	It is either A or B Not B   Therefore, A
2	Because things exist, something must have existed to cause their existence. Things exist because something existed before them. If everything is possible not to exists, then at one time nothing existed. If at one time nothing existed, then nothing could be in existence even today. Therefore, things are in existence because something must have existed before them, which guarantees their existence. Thus, C and D cannot be true.	If A, then B B C   If C, then D   Therefore, A
3	Things that do not exist start or derive their existence from existing things. Things already in existence derive their necessity of existence from other things that have been there before them. Therefore, for things to be in existence, something that begun existing before them must have caused their necessity. Therefore, B exists because A, which causes its necessity is I existence.	A causes B   B derives necessity from A Therefore, if B, A must be there
4	Any necessary thing whose necessity is caused by another cannot go to infinity since their cause could stop existing. If the cause of necessity stops existing, the necessary thing could stop existing too, thus, it cannot be infinitive. Thus, the resulting things cannot go to infinity since A determines their existence. Infinity things must have been in existence in the beginning.	If A then B   If B then C   Therefore A
5	If everything derives its necessity from another, nothing can derive its necessity from it itself. If nothing derives necessity for itself, then all things resulted from others in existence. Therefore, necessity of something is caused by something before them, which then cause necessity of other things after they are in existence.	If A then B   B   Therefore A

 

Explanations of Arguments

The first premise in argument 1 means that something already exists and it is there, there is not way it can be considered out of existence. The second premise means that if something is not in existence, it cannot be there. Thus, both in existence and out of existence cannot be present at the same time. Something is either existing or not existing. Both do not happen at the same time since they are both opposite of each other. Thus, something cannot be in existence while it does not exist. While something exists, it means it is there, and unless it is eliminated, it continues to exist. Both happen alternatively; thus, making this premise plausible.

The premise in the second argument suggests that things are in existence because something must have caused their existence. The second premise argues that something must have existed before, which must have made other things possible. Further, in the third premise of the same argument he suggests that if everything can be out of existence, then probably at one time there was nothing existing. If this was the case, there could have been nothing to cause the existence of another, which only means that nothing could be in existence even today. This premise would be true, but it only proves that something existed to cause the existence of others. The argument that everything is possible of non-existence would not be plausible since it would mean nothing would exist. Therefore, citing that this would be absurd suggests that it cannot be so, thus, something must have existed from the beginning that still exists. This argument is plausible on the basis that we exists, thus, something existed to cause our existence.

The first premise in the third argument states that things not in existence will derive their existence from the already existing things. This is plausible considering newborn exist because their parents existed before them, thus deriving their existence from them. Therefore, the same way, the parents derived their existence from those who existed before them. The argument suggests that things exist from the existence of others before them, meaning that something at the beginning must have been in existence to cause existence of others. This argument is plausible considering many things have come to be in existence after the earth was already there. For instance, human beings have not been in existence since the beginning of the world, thus, something must have caused their existence. The relationship in this argument is that something must be there for another to occur, which is true considering the example provided on existence of human being.

In the fourth argument, the premises provided try to explain that necessity of thins is caused by the things causing their existence. It suggests that something that derives its necessity from another cannot become infinitive. The reason that is provided by the premise is that the thing is not self-independent, thus, its cause must be present to ensure its existence. The reason something whose necessity is determined by another cannot be infinity is that if the thing causing its necessity stopped existing, it might as well stop existing. In addition, if something has not been present before, when it comes into existence, it must be caused by another thing, meaning it could not last forever if it has not lasted since beginning. Therefore, this argument is true in some part, while others may not be. For instance, considering animal that come into existence from others, those before them do not have to be in existence for them to exist.

The fifth and final argument explains that nothing can derive its own necessity for itself. Therefore, nothing can be said to come into existence out of its own necessity, since it would mean having existed before it existed, which does not make sense. The argument suggests that nothing started exist out of its own free will to exist. Therefore, there is a relationship between all the things in existence, where necessity is derived from already existing things for the new things. The argument is true considering that nothing exists alone without other things.

Criticism of the Argument

The first premise is right, and Aquinas makes no mistake by saying that existence and non-existence cannot be present at the same time, since they are inversely related, where only one can exists at one time. Many things come and go. In this argument he further says that anything that is possible of not to be does not exist at some time. This might be true, but considering some things such as the earth might render the argument untrue. The first argument is simple, and fails to give clarity on the issues it presents.

The second argument suggests that all things must have existed from other things. This is to mean that there must have been at one point when there was almost nothing in existence, except the main cause of the existence. The second argument makes a contradiction by citing that everything is capable of being out of existence, thus at one point nothing existed. Further, he emphasizes that all things are preceded by something that causes their existence. Thus, if this was true, how could anything ever exist? In this argument, Aquinas does not give a holistic argument to his claim.

On the premise that things derive their necessity from what caused their existence does not hold much sense considering something that came from something else could have a different life or existence of their own without deriving necessity from its cause. He has rather posed a general view that does not offer any details to support his account.

In the fourth argument, Aquinas argues that things deriving necessity of existence from others cannot go to infinity. This might be true, but it looks like things that cause other things still determine their existence, while the resulting things could be independent of the cause, and have their existence. Finally, the fifth argument suggests that nothing can derive its own necessity. This claim is not explained deeply, since it only suggests that things in existence cannot have their own necessity; rather, it is derived from others that were there before them.

Conclusion

Aquinas does pose very credible arguments as shown in the reconstructions with the aim of proving the existence of God. However, in this short passage, he does not show how his argument has proven the existence of God. Rather, he leaves it to the readers to get the answer from the argument provided, which is quite complicated. He only mentions God at the final sentence, to mean that all the descriptions on existence and necessity must have been caused by something that was in existence from the start.

 

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