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Philosophy 43806 First Paper -- Due October 1 Papers will be 6-7 pages in length, double spaced and in an
11-point
or 12-point proportional font. After explaining in some detail how it is that we can make true affirmative claims about God as He emerges from the via remotionis (q. 13, aa. 1-7), St. Thomas spends three articles (aa. 8-10) talking about the name or term 'God'. This is in some ways a vexed topic, because different cultures and different individuals seem to use this term (as it shows up in various languages) in ways that share something in common and yet differ strikingly from one another. Do all these people mean different things by the term, or do they simply have wildly different beliefs about the being they all unambiguously designate by the term. Or is the situation more complicated than would seem to be suggested by this simple distinction between meaning on the one hand and belief-about on the other? Your job is to sort out what St. Thomas has to say in these articles and try to paint a coherent picture of his ruminations on the term 'God'. (Or, if you think he's confused, show why and propose an alternative.)NOTE: YOUR NAME SHOULD APPEAR ONLY ON THE
BACK OF THE LAST
PAGE, WRITTEN IN PENCIL. |