This [voluntaristic and nominalist] line of thought even contributed in the end to the rise of mechanism: the ideal universe from this point of view is a mechanical one.20 In nominalism, the super-agent who is God relates to things as freely to be disposed of according to his autonomous purposes.… The purposes of things are extrinsic to them. The stance is fundamentally one of instrumental reason.… The shift will not be long in coming to a new understanding of being, according to which, all intrinsic
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