The modal-epistemic argument for the existence of God is flawed

International Journal for Philosophy of Religion 84 (3):307-322 (2018)
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Abstract

In a recent article, Emanuel Rutten has presented a novel argument for the existence of God, defined as a personal being that is the first cause of reality. An interesting feature of the argument, which caused quite a stir, is that it does not fall within any of the traditional categories of arguments for God’s existence. Rutten calls his argument a modal-epistemic one, which reflects the fact that the first premise of his argument states that all possible truths are knowable. The main purpose of this article is a simple one: to point out that Rutten’s modal-epistemic argument is flawed.

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Stefan Wintein
Erasmus University Rotterdam

References found in this work

The Ground Between the Gaps.Jonathan Schaffer - 2017 - Philosophers' Imprint 17.
The Problem of Evil and Some Varieties of Atheism.William L. Rowe - 1979 - American Philosophical Quarterly 16 (4):335 - 341.
Proof of an external world.George Edward Moore - 1939 - Proceedings of the British Academy 25 (5):273--300.
19 The Problem of Evil and Some Varieties of Atheism.William Rowe - 1979 - In Eleonore Stump & Michael J. Murray (eds.), Philosophy of Religion: The Big Questions. Blackwell. pp. 6--157.

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