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2 - Aquinas

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 November 2018

By
Brian Leftow
Edited by
Graham Oppy
Graham Oppy
Affiliation:
Monash University, Victoria
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Summary

This chapter traces Aquinas’ discussions of ‘ontological’ arguments through his works and evaluates his arguments. It emerges that he makes good points against the specific arguments he targets. The chapter also highlights a difference between contemporary approaches to such arguments and Aquinas’. For us, they concern whether to add a perfect being to our ontological inventory. For Aquinas, a perfect being was part of the inventory already, and such arguments really address an epistemological issue: whether one could know that God exists a priori.
Type
Chapter
Information
Ontological Arguments , pp. 44 - 52
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2018

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  • Aquinas
  • Edited by Graham Oppy, Monash University, Victoria
  • Book: Ontological Arguments
  • Online publication: 01 November 2018
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781316402443.003
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  • Aquinas
  • Edited by Graham Oppy, Monash University, Victoria
  • Book: Ontological Arguments
  • Online publication: 01 November 2018
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781316402443.003
Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

  • Aquinas
  • Edited by Graham Oppy, Monash University, Victoria
  • Book: Ontological Arguments
  • Online publication: 01 November 2018
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781316402443.003
Available formats
×