TY - JOUR AU - Fakhri, Omar PY - 2021/03/31 Y2 - 2024/03/28 TI - Another Look at the Modal Collapse Argument JF - European Journal for Philosophy of Religion JA - EJPR VL - 13 IS - 1 SE - Research Articles DO - 10.24204/ejpr.v13i1.3168 UR - https://www.philosophy-of-religion.eu/index.php/ejpr/article/view/3168 SP - 1-23 AB - <p>On one classical conception of God, God has no parts, not even metaphysical parts. God is not composed of form and matter, act and potency, and he is not composed of existence and essence. God is <em>absolutely</em> simple. This is the doctrine of Absolute Divine Simplicity (ADS). It is claimed that ADS implies a <em>modal collapse</em>, i.e. that God’s creation is absolutely necessary. I argue that a proper way of understanding the modal collapse argument naturally leads the proponent of ADS to reject a particular premise of the argument: namely, “the same identical cause brings about the same effect.” However, I argue that the rejection of that premise leads to a deeper problem for ADS. It leads to an explanatory gap: how can we explain the relevant type of indeterminism in an absolutely simple God?</p> ER -