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    LoyalLoyalJusticeJustice
    Made withinDC&Austin
    Negative attributes of God should be interpreted as negat... — Carmelics
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    Home/Divine Attributes
    HistoryEditSee Inverse

    Negative attributes of God should be interpreted as negations of similarity, i.e., expressions of incomparability

    Divine AttributesPhilosophy of Language
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    1 reason for
    2 reasons against

    Reasons For

    1 perspective
    Reason for
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    • 1.Pure negations do not convey anything positive about God
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    • 2.Interpreting negations as denials of similarity remedies their lack of informative content
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    • 3.This interpretation expresses God's incomparability to other things
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    Reasons Against

    2 perspectives
    Reason against 1 of 2
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    • 1.Maimonides argued that negative attributes preserve divine simplicity by avoiding any predication, whereas incomparability claims still implicitly posit a relational property.
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    • 2.A statement of incomparability ('God is unlike creatures') presupposes a comparison class, thereby reintroducing the kind of conceptual relation to finite beings that negative theology seeks to eliminate.
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    Reason against 2 of 2
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    • 1.Aquinas held that analogical predication allows genuine, if imperfect, positive knowledge of God's nature via the via eminentiae, making pure negation accounts informationally unnecessary.
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    • 2.If negations are merely expressions of incomparability, they collapse into a form of agnosticism that cannot ground the religious and liturgical practices that theological language is meant to support.
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    Topics

    Divine AttributesPhilosophy of Language

    Connections

    1 topic

    Against an attribute of God1 linked

    Related

    A statement of incomparability ('God is unlike creatures') presupposes a compari...Aquinas held that analogical predication allows genuine, if imperfect, positive ...If negations are merely expressions of incomparability, they collapse into a for...Interpreting negations as denials of similarity remedies their lack of informati...
    +3 moreShow less
    Maimonides argued that negative attributes preserve divine simplicity by avoidin...Pure negations do not convey anything positive about GodThis interpretation expresses God's incomparability to other things

    Similar

    Logical incompatibility between two properties requires either that on...81%If Extension is an attribute of God, its properties apply to God79%Interpreting negations as denials of similarity remedies their lack of...79%This interpretation expresses God's incomparability to other things78%

    Source

    AI-extracted1/3 agreementValid
    SEP: abraham-daud
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    This God is absolutely one, both in the sense of unique (God is externally one) and in the sense of simple (God is internally one,or uncomposed). God’s unity implies that he cannot have essential or accidental attributes since that would imply plurality in the divine essence. Therefore, the attributes that are often ascribed to God, such as that he is one, existent, true, mighty etc. etc. should be interpreted either negatively, or as relations. According to Ibn Daud, “the truest predicates or a
    Extraction notes

    Validity: Extracted via Max plan + API grounding/validity checks

    Details

    Type
    claim
    Perspectives
    3 (1 for, 2 against)
    Edits
    1 edit