Varieties of The Principle of Material Causality and the Problem of Creation Ex Nihilo

Very rough draft. 

There are at least seven versions of the principle of material causality:

1. Strong De Dicto PMC: Necessarily, all individuals and stuffs that have an originating or sustaining efficient cause have an originating or sustaining material cause, respectively.

2. Strong De Re PMC: All individuals and stuffs (in the actual world) are such that, necessarily, they have an originating or sustaining material cause whenever they have an originating or sustaining efficient cause, respectively.

3. Standard PMC: All individuals and stuffs that have an originating or sustaining efficient cause have an originating or sustaining material cause, respectively.

4. Defeasible PMC: Normally, individuals and stuffs with originating or sustaining efficient causes have originating or sustaining material causes, respectively.

5. IBE PMC: Theories that conform to PMC are more theoretically virtuous than those that fail to conform to PMC.

6. Bayesian PMC: Theories that conform to PMC have a much higher prior probability than those that fail to conform to PMC.

7. Weak PMC: Possibly, all individuals and stuffs that have an originating or sustaining efficient cause have an originating or sustaining material cause, respectively.

From each principle, one can generate a defensible version of the problem of creation ex nihilo. There are therefore at least seven defensible versions of the problem of creation ex nihilo for theism.