Divine simplicity

Brian Leftow

doi:10.5840/faithphil200623433

Divine simplicity

Brian Leftow

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

26 Scopus citations

Abstract

Augustine, Aquinas and many other medievals held the doctrine of divine simplicity (DDS)-that God has no parts of any sort. Augustine took this to imply that for any non-relational attribute F, if God is F, God = Fness. This can seem to create three problems. I set them out. Having done so, I show that Augustine's DDS is set within a view of attributes now unfamiliar to us. When we bring this into the picture, it turns out that two of the problems do not really arise and the third is not really problematic. I then suggest that my rescue of Augustine may rescue other prominent friends of DDS as well.

Original language	English (US)
Pages (from-to)	365-380
Number of pages	16
Journal	Faith and Philosophy
Volume	23
Issue number	4
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.5840/faithphil200623433
State	Published - Oct 2006
Externally published	Yes

All Science Journal Classification (ASJC) codes

Religious studies
Philosophy

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10.5840/faithphil200623433

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abstract = "Augustine, Aquinas and many other medievals held the doctrine of divine simplicity (DDS)-that God has no parts of any sort. Augustine took this to imply that for any non-relational attribute F, if God is F, God = Fness. This can seem to create three problems. I set them out. Having done so, I show that Augustine's DDS is set within a view of attributes now unfamiliar to us. When we bring this into the picture, it turns out that two of the problems do not really arise and the third is not really problematic. I then suggest that my rescue of Augustine may rescue other prominent friends of DDS as well.",

author = "Brian Leftow",

year = "2006",

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doi = "10.5840/faithphil200623433",

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issn = "0739-7046",

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AB - Augustine, Aquinas and many other medievals held the doctrine of divine simplicity (DDS)-that God has no parts of any sort. Augustine took this to imply that for any non-relational attribute F, if God is F, God = Fness. This can seem to create three problems. I set them out. Having done so, I show that Augustine's DDS is set within a view of attributes now unfamiliar to us. When we bring this into the picture, it turns out that two of the problems do not really arise and the third is not really problematic. I then suggest that my rescue of Augustine may rescue other prominent friends of DDS as well.

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Divine simplicity

Abstract

All Science Journal Classification (ASJC) codes

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