Skip to content
Carmelics
TopicsThinkersChangesContributorsLoading account…

    Carmelics

    A reasoning platform. Break down any belief into clear reasons, explore both sides, and weigh the evidence honestly.

    Navigate

    • Topics
    • Search
    • Recent Changes
    • Contribute
    • How It Works
    • Glossary
    • Thinkers
    • Contributors
    • About
    • Statistics
    • Terms
    • Privacy

    Database

    Statements
    —
    Perspectives
    —
    Topics
    —

    Press ? for keyboard shortcuts

    LoyalLoyalJusticeJustice
    Made withinDC&Austin
    Statements
    321,452
    Perspectives
    108,905
    Topics
    42
    Home/Original/inverse
    See Original
    Inverse View

    It is not the case that God is uniquely unique—unique not as one of a kind, but in transcending the distinction between kind and member of a kind.

    ?Set your confidence on the premises below to see your aggregate.

    Reasons For

    2 perspectives
    Reason for 1 of 2
    ?
    • 1.Any intelligible claim of uniqueness presupposes a conceptual framework of kinds within which uniqueness is defined.
      ?

      Think about whether this reason is strong or weak

    • 2.An entity that genuinely transcends the kind/member distinction cannot coherently be said to be 'unique' in any meaningful sense.
      ?

      Think about whether this reason is strong or weak

    • 3.The claim thus collapses into self-referential incoherence, using categorical language to deny the applicability of categorical language.
      ?

      Think about whether this reason is strong or weak

    Reason for 2 of 2
    ?
    • 1.Aquinas's own doctrine of analogical predication concedes that divine attributes are neither univocal nor equivocal but analogical.
      ?

      Think about whether this reason is strong or weak

    • 2.Analogy requires some structural similarity between the divine and creaturely cases, implying God participates in at least a loose common framework of reference.
      ?

      Think about whether this reason is strong or weak

    • 3.The assertion that God transcends the kind/member distinction therefore contradicts the very analogical method invoked to make divine-attribute claims intelligible.
      ?

      Think about whether this reason is strong or weak

    Reasons Against

    1 perspective
    Reason against
    ?
    • 1.God is unique in his mode of property-possession.
      ?

      Think about whether this reason is strong or weak

    • 2.God is unique in his mode of existence.
      ?

      Think about whether this reason is strong or weak

    • 3.God is unique in his modal status.
      ?

      Think about whether this reason is strong or weak

    Next step

    Based on where you are in your exploration

    Strongest counterpoint
    Explore the most compelling reason on the other side.