{"id":1501,"date":"2012-01-15T13:50:21","date_gmt":"2012-01-15T18:50:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/unequallyyoked\/?p=1501"},"modified":"2012-02-05T18:36:36","modified_gmt":"2012-02-05T23:36:36","slug":"fesers-the-last-superstition-index-post","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/unequallyyoked\/2012\/01\/fesers-the-last-superstition-index-post.html","title":{"rendered":"Feser’s The Last Superstition [Index Post]"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

I ran into a Dominican at an American Association for the Advancement of Sciences<\/a> event in DC, and now I\u2019m reading and arguing about Edward Feser<\/a>\u2018s The Last Superstition: A Refutation of the Last Atheism<\/a><\/em> with him and another brother at the priory.<\/p>\n

This seems like a nice opportunity to explore the \u2018non-nihilistic metaphysics logically require theism and probably Christianity\u2019 pitch that I\u2019ve gotten from plenty of Christians and more than a few atheists. \u00a0Hopefully the discussion will put me in a better spot to answer Dom\u2019s challenge<\/a>. \u00a0All posts about this book will be listed here, with the first one coming out Monday. \u00a0And, for everyone\u2019s convenience, since Feser spends a lot of time on Aristotle, I\u2019ll put his summary of the Four Causes<\/a> here for reference. \u00a0(His quickie explanation applies all four to the example of a red rubber ball).<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Material Cause<\/em> \u2013 underlying stuff that a thing is made out of, in this case rubber<\/li>\n
  2. Formal Cause<\/em> \u2013 the form, structure, or pattern the materal exhibits, which in this case comprises such features as sphericity, solidity, and bounciness.<\/li>\n
  3. Efficient Cause<\/em> \u2013 brings a thing into being, or more accurately and technically, which actualizes a potentiality in a thing; in this case that would be the actions of the workers and\/or machines in the factory in which the ball was made<\/li>\n
  4. Final Cause<\/em> \u2013 the end, goal, purpose of \u00a0a thing, in this case providing amusement to a child<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    Strict materialists and plenty of other people think final causes are nonexistent and\/or incoherent. \u00a0My posts on the topic follow below:<\/p>\n

      \n
    1. Stuck in the Map Territory Gap<\/a> \u2013 How can you tell whether a metaphysics is just a formalization of what you already know or a new structure to build on?<\/li>\n
    2. Three Final Causes I Don\u2019t Pray To<\/a> \u2013 Even if I concede my existence is predicated on some First Mover or being that is Pure Act, does that entity have to look anything like a god?<\/li>\n
    3. Futzing Around with Final Causes<\/a> \u2013 Where is everyone getting this \u2018inherent dignity of the body\u2019 stuff from anyway?<\/li>\n
    4. It\u2019s Hard Out Here for a Platonist<\/a> \u2013 If you\u2019re going to take aim at a human-independent idea of math, there\u2019s going to be a lot of collateral damage.<\/li>\n
    5. The Perfection-Privation Problem<\/a> \u2013 I get confused by the God-as-all-perfections- perfected idea<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

      \u00a0<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

      I ran into a Dominican at an American Association for the Advancement of Sciences event in DC, and now I\u2019m reading and arguing about Edward Feser\u2018s The Last Superstition: A Refutation of the Last Atheism with him and another brother at the priory. This seems like a nice opportunity to explore the \u2018non-nihilistic metaphysics logically […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":127,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7,68,27,8,16],"tags":[41],"class_list":["post-1501","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-apologetics","category-epistemologyphilosophy","category-parsing-catholicism","category-reviewsrecommendations","category-sequence-index","tag-sundays-good-book"],"yoast_head":"\nFeser's The Last Superstition [Index Post]<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"I ran into a Dominican at an American Association for the Advancement of Sciences event in DC, and now I'm reading and arguing about Edward Feser's The\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" 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