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Chapter 5 - What does it all mean?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 June 2012

Colin Howson
Affiliation:
University of Toronto
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Summary

‘There’s a reason for everything.’

From here to infinity

We have probably all heard of feedback cycles, where a permissible operation can send a system into an unending sequence of cycles. Something rather like one haunts the philosophical literature on God. Its origin is the apparently unremarkable fact that every natural language contains a word or words equivalent to ‘Why?’ The fact may seem unremarkable, but combined with what looks like an equally unremarkable assumption it generates an explosive mixture. For if X is any meaningful contingent statement, the expression ‘Why (is it the case that) X?’ is a grammatically well-formed question, and given the plausible assumption that to any meaningful question there is in principle an answer, we have the loop: to any answer, say Z, you simply stick ‘Why’ in front of it and place ‘?’ after it, and off you go again. Forever, or so it seems.

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Objecting to God , pp. 114 - 135
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2011

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References

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  • What does it all mean?
  • Colin Howson, University of Toronto
  • Book: Objecting to God
  • Online publication: 05 June 2012
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511812477.006
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  • What does it all mean?
  • Colin Howson, University of Toronto
  • Book: Objecting to God
  • Online publication: 05 June 2012
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511812477.006
Available formats
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Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

  • What does it all mean?
  • Colin Howson, University of Toronto
  • Book: Objecting to God
  • Online publication: 05 June 2012
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511812477.006
Available formats
×