the Necessary Existent on the basis of this principle is merely persuasive, not demonstrative—as when he says, in discussing the proposition that only one proceeds from one:

“What this argument posits—that every effect is contingent—is true only of a composite effect. Nothing composite can be beginningless. Thus, everything contingent, according to the philosophers, is originated.”

He says:

“Aristotle explicitly states this in several places in his books.”

He says:

“As for what Ibn Sīnā calls contingent, the term ‘contingent’ applies to it and to the contingent in different senses. Likewise, its need for an agent is not evident on the same grounds that make the contingent’s need evident.”