Skip to main content

CA Without the Principle of Sufficient Reason (PSR)

Two philosophers, Bernard D. Katz and Elmar J. Kremer, have formulated a cosmological argument that does not rely on the Principle of Sufficient Reason (PSR).

Formulation​

The argument is based on the Principle of Epistemic Explanations; given that (i) there is a possible explanation of the fact that and (ii) any possible explanation of then entails , then it is reasonable to believe that is true.

  1. The proposition that there is a unique necessary being who brought about the existence of everything other than itself by willing that the other beings exist, would, if true, explain why there are contingent beings.
  2. There is a possible explanation of the fact that there are contingent beings.
  3. There is no proposition consistent with the claim that there are only contingent beings which, if true, would explain why there are contingent beings.