Review of 'Theism and Ultimate Explanation: The Necessary Shape of Contingency' by Timothy O'Connor: Blackwell, 2008. XIV + 178 PP. ₤40.00

Title
Review of 'Theism and Ultimate Explanation: The Necessary Shape of Contingency' by Timothy O'Connor: Blackwell, 2008. XIV + 178 PP. ₤40.00
Publication Date
2009
Author(s)
Forrest, Peter
Type of document
Review
Language
en
Entity Type
Publication
Publisher
Oxford University Press
Place of publication
United Kingdom
UNE publication id
une:6633
Abstract
In this book Timothy O'Connor combines an investigation of modal epistemology with a fresh look at the traditional contingency version of the cosmological argument. The connection between the two parts is that he defends the practice of hypothesizing necessities for explanatory purposes, resisting those accounts that link possibility too closely to conceivability. This provides the context in which he asks the 'existence question', "Why do the particular contingent objects there are exist and undergo the events they do?" (65). Wisely avoiding the Principle of Sufficient Reason he argues that the existence question is answered by, and only by, positing a necessary being that is 'a se' in the sense of not depending on any other being.
Link
Citation
Analysis, 69(3), p. 589-591
ISSN
1467-8284
0003-2638
Start page
589
End page
591

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