LessonsThe Originator of the World: Necessary Existence, Infinite Regress and the Correspondence ProofQuiz

ولا بعضها، لاستحالة كون الشيء علة لنفسه ولعلته
Nor may the cause be one of its parts, since a thing cannot be the cause of itself and of its own cause.

Suppose member A is itself dependent, yet A is proposed as the cause of the entire chain A, B, C, and so on. In grounding the whole, A would also have to ground the existence of A itself: the original dependence has reappeared.

If A also depends on another member within the collection, treating A as the origin of the whole threatens to make it cause the very cause on which it depends. The text therefore separates causation within the series from a non-dependent ground of the whole.

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Why a member cannot ground the entire collection

The Originator of the World: Necessary Existence, Infinite Regress and the Correspondence Proof

ولا بعضها، لاستحالة كون الشيء علة لنفسه ولعلته
Nor may the cause be one of its parts, since a thing cannot be the cause of itself and of its own cause.

Suppose member A is itself dependent, yet A is proposed as the cause of the entire chain A, B, C, and so on. In grounding the whole, A would also have to ground the existence of A itself: the original dependence has reappeared.

If A also depends on another member within the collection, treating A as the origin of the whole threatens to make it cause the very cause on which it depends. The text therefore separates causation within the series from a non-dependent ground of the whole.