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The Metaphysics of Divine Causation

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The Metaphysics of Divine Causation The Metaphysics of Divine Causation THE METAPHYSICS OF DIVINE CAUSATION Danielle Helen Adams Submitted in accordance with the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy The University of Leeds School of Philosophy, Religion, and History of Science July 2016 [i] The Metaphysics of Divine Causation The candidate confirms that the work submitted is her own and that appropriate credit has been given where reference has been made to the work of others. This copy has been supplied on the understanding that it is copyright material and that no quotation from the thesis may be published without proper acknowledgement. © 2016 The University of Leeds and Danielle Helen Adams The right of Danielle Helen Adams to be identified as Author of this work has been asserted by her in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. [ii] The Metaphysics of Divine Causation ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS There are many, many people I would like to thank for their encouragement and support over the years. This thesis could not have been completed, had I not been surrounded by such kind, generous, and lovely people, and I thank every single person who has helped get me here. I would like to begin by thanking the School of PRHS at Leeds for awarding me a Graduate Teaching Assistantship, which funded me for the first three years of my PhD. Even though the teaching has been very time consuming, it’s something I’ve very much enjoyed, and I value the experience greatly. My thanks also to the Royal Institute of Philosophy, whose generous Jacobsen Studentship provided me with much needed funding in my fourth year. Many people along the way have inspired me to pursue my studies in philosophy. I thank Ms. Bull at the Bulmershe School, who helped to spark my initial interest in the subject, and whose kind words gave me the confidence to pursue the subject at university. Thanks also to John Divers, Bob Hale, Rosanna Keefe, Steven Makin, and Eric Olsen, whose teaching at Sheffield University was exceptional, and who helped me to realise that metaphysics was my biggest passion. I also benefitted greatly from excellent teaching whilst studying for my MA at Leeds, particularly from Elizabeth Barnes, Ross Cameron, Robin Le Poidevin, Andrew McGonigal, and Scott Shalkowski. Leeds has been a fantastic place to conduct postgraduate research. The office staff have always been lovely to me, and I thank each of the following people for being fantastic colleagues, and for giving the department such a friendly atmosphere: Denise Aston, Sarah Cason, Trish Davies, Louise Hawksworth, Charlie Heslop, Jo Luff, Jenneke Stevens, and Roz Walsh. My friends in HPS have also been fantastic colleagues. Each of them has provided much needed banter and friendship, but I would particularly like to thank Becky Bowd, Liz Bruton, Clare O’Reilly, Sean McNally, and Laura Sellers. I have also benefited greatly from studying at a department which has such fantastic lecturers – these people have been an inspiration to me, and I have learned a lot just from spending time with them. There are too many to mention, but I particularly thank the following people who have not already been mentioned: Mikel Burley, Daniel Elstein, Steven French, Simon Hewitt, Gerald Lang, Heather Logue, Tasia Scrutton, Pekka Väyrynen, Robbie Williams, and Mark Wynn. Thank you also to Nick Jones and Adrian Wilson, for their wisdom, and for helping me to keep my head above by employing me as their assistant and gardener respectively – jobs I’ve very much enjoyed. I’d also like to extend my gratitude to Penny Tharratt and Leslie Geary, whose guidance and support has been very valuable to me. I thank my family very much for their love, support, and encouragement, even though I’m not sure any of them knows exactly what it is I’ve been doing all these years – or why! [iii] The Metaphysics of Divine Causation Endless amounts of love and gratitude to my Mum, Dad, Grandad, late Grandmother, and brothers Ben and Matthew. To my non-academic friends, especially Oliver Farrell, Becca Hartley, and Matthew Peter Dean, I am sorry I haven’t seen nearly enough of you for the past few years, but thank you for always being there for me. I will be seeing much more of you from now on! I have loved my time at Leeds and this is largely because of the amazing postgraduate community here. I have met many people over the years who have made this a great place to study and socialise. Again, there are too many to mention, but I give my love and thanks especially to: John Baldari, Jordan Bartol, Marc Cole, Dave Cornell, John Fernley, James Fraser, Lewis Hickley, Christina Nick, Olof Leffler, Adam Patel-Somers, Christina Nick, Will Perry, Rob Pezet, Sam Symons, Alison Toop, James Rimmer, Liz Watkins, and Marc Wilcox. Very importantly, I would like to express my heartfelt thanks to my supervisors, who have been extremely kind, supportive, generous and patient with me. Robin Le Poidevin and Helen Steward are two of the nicest people I’ve ever met; they’ve been the best supervisors I could have wished for, and their thinking has influenced me massively. I thank Robin particularly for helping me to think through the big-picture stuff, and for helping me to come up with the thesis proposal in the first place. I thank Helen particularly for the tea, the kind notes which were always left at the end of my work, and the encouragement to defend my own view. Thanks too to Jason Turner, who also supervised me for the first two years of my PhD – although my time with him was limited, I learned a lot from him, and the chapter on counterfactuals benefited hugely from his advice. For going above and beyond the call of duty as friends and colleagues and for putting up with me the longest I thank Jon Banks, Mike Bench-Capon, Thomas Brouwer, Rich Caves, Jade Fletcher, Will Gamester, Emily Paul, Jon Robson, Nahuel Sznajderhaus, Nick Tasker, and Carl Warom. You people are the best – big love to you all. Extra special heartfelt thanks goes to my sister, Sarah, for giving me endless amounts of her time and thoughts. She has proof-read every single word in this thesis and has talked through every single idea with me. I would not have done this without her support and encouragement. If this thesis is half as good as hers, I’ll be very happy indeed. Lastly, but very importantly, infinite love and thanks to my partner, Jo, who has given me endless amounts of love, support, and kindness – always with a smile on her face, despite the stress of completing a doctorate in Clinical Psychology herself. I could not have done this without her. [iv] The Metaphysics of Divine Causation ABSTRACT It is something of an orthodoxy that the nature of causation can be characterised by the following metaphysical theses: that causes do not necessitate their effects, that causes must temporally precede their effects, that causation is governed by laws of nature, that causation entails counterfactual dependence, and that causation is not systematically overdetermined. Two further commonly accepted metaphysical claims are that causal notions give us the correct tools to properly understand agency, and that the causes of actions are mental events. Classical theism, however, is comprised by certain commitments which seem to be in direct tension with each of these metaphysical theses. God is understood to be causally efficacious – a divine being who creates, sustains, and intervenes in worldly affairs – and so who is, indeed the, paradigmatic causal agent. Further, God is said to be atemporal, non-physical, and such that he exists independently of all else. The God of classical theism is also characterised as being omnipotent, at least in the sense that whatever he wills to be the case cannot fail to be the case. The apparent tension between these metaphysical theses which concern causation and those which concern God thus threaten the very coherence of the notion of divine causality. The goal of this thesis is therefore to examine these prima facie theistically problematic theses concerning causation, and to consider ways of making room for a coherent notion of divine causality. In some cases, it will argue that certain causal theses ought to be rejected, in others, it will find ways of resolving the tension. [v] The Metaphysics of Divine Causation TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ................................................................................................................. iii ABSTRACT ............................................................................................................................................ v LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS ............................................................................................................. ix INTRODUCTION & OUTLINE ...................................................................................................... x I: DIVINE CAUSATION & NECESSITY ..................................................................................... 1 1. Introduction .......................................................................................................................... 1 2. The Argument from Logically Sufficient Conditions ....................................... 1 2.1 The Argument .............................................................................................................. 1 2.2 An Anticipated Objection to [P1] ..................................................................... 3 2.3 [P1] and Humean Considerations .....................................................................
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