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Divine attributes grounding and modal pluralism: a structural critique

Lawson, Frank
PhilArchive · Papers
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philosophy
This paper develops a structural critique of classical theism by formalizing a mapping failure between the modal architecture of the divine nature and the branching structure of the actual world. Moving beyond propositional contradictions, I argue that classical theism suffers from two fundamental grounding failures. First, External Misalignment: using a rooted branching-time model and the Axiom of Historical Priority (AHP), I demonstrate that no structure-preserving mapping exists between the divine modal system and the actual world. The "Hard Anchor" of actualized history—containing gratuitous suffering and epistemic opacity—generates modal vectors that the divine nature cannot ground without violating its own essential necessities. Second, Internal Incoherence: I argue that because grounding is hyperintensional, the necessities generated by distinct divine attributes (such as Goodness, Freedom, and Relationality) interact to produce incompatible modal commitments prior to creation. These results yield a Structural Trilemma: one cannot simultaneously maintain a unitary necessary ground, a branching historical root, and grounding-theoretic consistency. Beyond theism, the paper establishes a novel meta-metaphysical category of "Structural Impossibility"—worlds that are propositionally consistent but architecturally ungroundable—offering a new diagnostic tool for formal ontology.
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