Aquinas on What God is Not.

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  • Author(s): Davies, Brian
  • Source:
    Royal Institute of Philosophy Supplement. Jul2016, Vol. 78, p55-71. 17p.
  • Additional Information
    • Subject Terms:
      PROOF of God; THOMAS, Aquinas, Saint, ca. 1225-1274; ARGUMENT; PHILOSOPHY of religion; THEOLOGIANS; PHILOSOPHERS
    • Abstract:
      It is often said that if God exists, he is strongly comparable to what is not divine. In particular, it has been claimed that for God to exist is for a person to exist. In what follows I show how, esteemed theologian though he is commonly taken to be, Thomas Aquinas adopts a strongly different line of thinking according to which we seriously do not know what God is. In doing so, I draw attention to his use of nominal definitions in his arguments for ‘God exists’. I also highlight his teachings that God is simple and that words used to talk about God in subject-predicate sentences always ‘signify imperfectly’. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]
    • Abstract:
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