Patrick Connolly (Johns Hopkins University): Locke, Newton, Causal Containment, and God’s Existence

https://sites.google.com/site/patrickjconnolly3/

Abstract: This paper focuses on the causal principles undergirding Locke’s argument for God’s existence.  Specifically, Locke appeals to causal containment, the idea that a cause must somehow contain its effects, in order for his argument to deliver a substantive conclusion.  But Locke’s efforts to employ the causal containment principle leave him struggling to avoid unwanted Spinozistic conclusions.  Locke, like many figures in the period, needs a suitably nuanced version of the causal containment principle.  The paper argues that Locke has the resources to develop one.  The resources come from Isaac Newton and the distinctive theory of material substance developed in Newton’s De gravitatione.