St. Thomas Aquinas
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a. critically evaluate Thomas argument from necessity in the terms of validity and soundness.
how does it turn on the validity of the Aristotelian princle of ' no infinate Regress'?
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<br>First of all, you need to set out the argument from necessity. Summaarised (you probably want to add some quotations from the Summa) it is as follows:
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<br>1. Since things are generated, it is possible for them to be or not be.
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<br>2. Since things are countable, they are finite in number.
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<br>3. If, for all things, they do not exist at some time, then given infinite time, there would be nothing in existence. (Nothing can come from nothing.)
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<br>4. But many things exist.
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<br>Therefore, a Necessary Being (i.e., a Being of which it is impossible that it should not exist) exists.
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<br>Evaluating something for validity involves ensuring that the argument follows from the premise; evaluating it for soundness involves evaluating the premise to see if it is indeed correct.
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<br>1 & 2 are the premises from which Aquinas draws 3, 4, and then his ...
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