Timothy O’Connor 
Theism and Ultimate Explanation 
The Necessary Shape of Contingency

An expansive, yet succinct, analysis of the Philosophy of Religion
– from metaphysics through theology. Organized into two
sections, the text first examines truths concerning what is
possible and what is necessary. These chapters lay the foundation
for the book’s second part – the search for a
metaphysical framework that permits the possibility of an ultimate
explanation that is correct and complete.

* A cutting-edge scholarly work which engages with the
traditional metaphysician’s quest for a true ultimate
explanation of the most general features of the world we
inhabit

* Develops an original view concerning the epistemology and
metaphysics of modality, or truths concerning what is possible or
necessary

* Applies this framework to a re-examination of the cosmological
argument for theism

* Defends a novel version of the Leibnizian cosmological
argument

Tabela de Conteúdo

Preface ix

Part I The Explanatory Role of Necessity 1

1. Modality and Explanation 3

Relative and Absolute Necessity 3

Scientifically Established Necessities 5

An Epistemological Worry about Modality: Causal Contact with
Modal Facts 7

Modal Nihilism 10

Modal Reductionism and Defl ationism 15

Modal Anti-Realism and Quasi-Realism 27

Conclusion 30

2. Modal Knowledge 32

Conceivability As Our Guide? 32

Modality a Matter of Principle? 36

The Theoretical Roles of Modal Claims: Towards a Modal
Epistemology 41

The Spheres of Possibility 60

Part II The Necessary Shape of Contingency 63

3. Ultimate Explanation and Necessary Being: The Existence
Stage of the Cosmological Argument 65

Necessary Being 68

Two Objections to the Traditional Answer 73

Necessary Being As the Explanatory Ground of Contingency? 79

4. The Identification Stage 86

From Necessary Being to God, I: Transcendent, Not Immanent
86

Two Models of Transcendent Necessary Being: Logos and Chaos
93

Varieties of Chaos 93

Interlude: The Fine-Tuning Argument 97

From Necessary Being to God, II: Logos, Not Random Chaos 109

5. The Scope of Contingency 111

How Many Universes Would Perfection Realize? 111

Perfection and Freedom 121

Some Applications of the Many-Universe-Creation Hypothesis
122

Necessary Being and the Scope of Possibility 125

Necessary Being and the Many Necessary Truths 128

6. The God of Abraham, Isaac, and Anselm? 130

The Unity of the Divine Nature and Its Consequences 132

Natural Theology in the Understanding of Revealed Theology
140

Coda 143

Notes 145

Bibliography 162

Index 172

Sobre o autor

Timothy O’Connor is Professor of Philosophy at Indiana University Bloomington. He has published widely in the areas of metaphysics, philosophy of mind and action, and philosophy of religion. He is the author of Persons and Causes (2000) and the editor of Agents, Causes, and Events: Essays on Indeterminism and Free Will (1995), Philosophy of Mind: Contemporary Readings (2003), Downward Causation And The Neurobiology Of Free Will (2009), Emergence in Science and Philosophy (2010) and A Companion to the Philosophy of Action (2010).