Is empiricism of some kind a way out of the Trilemma? — Uber
An implicit point behind the Trilemma is that all of these ends are rather terrible, in the sense that they don't offer any satisfying finality. — Uber
Infinite chains are truncated at the level of appropriate meaning.
But you can always question the discovery process behind the foundation. Why this or that decision? The foundation then needs to be reconsidered all over again. So again, it's arbitrary. — Uber
I wanted to solicit your thoughts and opinions on how, or even if, Agrippa's Trilemma has any relevance on major problems in philosophy. Agrippa's Trilemma is the proposition that the attempt to justify any philosophical belief can only end in one of three ways:
1) A circular argument
2) An infinite chain of explanation
3) A foundational assumption that can no longer be questioned
An implicit point behind the Trilemma is that all of these ends are rather terrible, in the sense that they don't offer any satisfying finality. I am neither defending nor rejecting the Trilemma here, but I do want to know if you think it applies in any way to the philosophical issues below. You may also bring up other problems that you think apply. — Uber
Is empiricism of some kind a way out of the Trilemma? — Uber
Infinite chains are truncated at the level of appropriate meaning. — tim wood
My question to you all is: could the same thing apply for ultimate theistic explanations of reality? — Uber
The world was not the consequence of an inexorable chain of cause and effect. Like a Modernist work of art, there is no necessity about it at all, and God might well have come to regret his handiwork some aeons ago. The Creation is the original acte gratuit. God is an artist who did it for the sheer love or hell of it, not a scientist at work on a magnificently rational design that will impress his research grant body no end.
Having a foundational assumption that can no longer be questioned seems like just giving up. I suppose giving up is one way out of the whole thing. — Uber
Is empiricism of some kind a way out of the Trilemma? — Uber
Maybe that's a bit of a cardboard cutout of Hegel, but it perhaps offers a different way of dealing with the trilemma. — MetaphysicsNow
You just land on the foundational assumption that God and being are one and the same thing. — Uber
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