Archive for August 5th, 2008
Whether the Essence of Goodness Consists in Mode, Species and Order?
What Aquinas is saying here (ST, I, 5, 5), it seems to me, is that the essence of goodness in any piece of art, whether divine or human, consists in the proper application of the four causes to fashion it. Thus, the right materials (material cause) and the proper employment of the power of the [...]
Posted: August 5th, 2008 under Metaphysics, Philosophy.
Comments: none
Aquinas’ and Descartes’ Use of Infinity
One of St. Thomas’ proofs of the infinity of God is this: “Again, an effect cannot transcend its cause. But our intellect can only be from God, Who is the first cause of all things. Our intellect cannot think of anything greater than God. If, then, it can think of something greater than every finite [...]
Posted: August 5th, 2008 under Philosophy, Religion.
Comments: 3
The Ontological Argument Redux
This argument for the existence of God tries to deduce from the meaning of the term “God” the fact that this term also has a referent. Normally, semiotics teaches that the signified is a different beast than the referent. But is that true for the signifier “God”? It seems that when God signifies “a being [...]
Posted: August 5th, 2008 under Metaphysics, Philosophy, Religion.
Comments: 8