I believe I have found the πρῶτον ψεῦδος of almost every single modern atheist, expressed succinctly as a principle.
From Baumgarten’s Metaphysics, §31.
Almost every atheist thinks that removing God from one’s ontology changes nothing else, but is merely an atomic deletion.
From Baumgarten’s Metaphysics, §31.
Almost every atheist thinks that removing God from one’s ontology changes nothing else, but is merely an atomic deletion.
Perhaps I should post a bit more, to make the paragraph clearer.
The matter involves GROUND or REASON, as in the PRINCIPLE OF GROUND or PRINCIPLE OF SUFFICIENT REASON.
Ground = Grund = ἀρχή
I sometimes call it ground-reason.
The matter involves GROUND or REASON, as in the PRINCIPLE OF GROUND or PRINCIPLE OF SUFFICIENT REASON.
Ground = Grund = ἀρχή
I sometimes call it ground-reason.
Everything that is—and by “is” here we mean both actual and possible—has some ground-reason, some ground, some ἀρχή that accounts for and sufficiently explains its existence.
Everything except nothingness, that is, everything, has the Ground-Grounded structure.
Everything except nothingness, that is, everything, has the Ground-Grounded structure.
Remove the Ground in thought and you remove that which is Grounded upon it.
The error of the atheist is to think he can remove the Ground of Grounds, God, and yet still have everything which is Grounded in God—which strictly, is everything—but more proximally is the Good.
The error of the atheist is to think he can remove the Ground of Grounds, God, and yet still have everything which is Grounded in God—which strictly, is everything—but more proximally is the Good.
Hence why I say that "atheism entails nihilism" and "atheism entails absurdism.”
Atheism entails nihilism because God qua the Good is the ground of morality/ethics. Remove the Ground, remove the thing. Nietzsche knew this.
Atheism entails nihilism because God qua the Good is the ground of morality/ethics. Remove the Ground, remove the thing. Nietzsche knew this.
Atheism entails absurdism because God is the ground of intelligibility of the world. Remove the Ground, remove the consequence. Nietzsche knew this too.
It should be evident that God, being THE ἀρχή, the axis or lynchpin of all Being, cannot be removed with no consequences.
Yet the type of atheist most common today is the kind Nietzsche madman spat on, who think they can do without God—and carry on just as before.
Yet the type of atheist most common today is the kind Nietzsche madman spat on, who think they can do without God—and carry on just as before.
πρῶτον ψεῦδος means “original error” or “point where things first go wrong,” if you don’t know that.
In any line of reasoning that goes wrong, there will be a POINT it goes wrong. This is the πρῶτον ψεῦδος.
In any line of reasoning that goes wrong, there will be a POINT it goes wrong. This is the πρῶτον ψεῦδος.
It is a very useful term.
