The nature of God

197 Pages·1995·3.17 MB·English

by  Gerard J Hughes

The Nature of God
In The Nature of God, Gerard Hughes takes five central attributes—Existence,
Simplicity, Omniscience, Omnipotence and Goodness—which are central to the
classical concept of God.
Incorporating texts by Aquinas, Ockham, Molina, Descartes, Hume and Kant,
he aims to give the reader first-hand acquaintance with these classical writers,
and then to discuss their arguments in the light of contemporary debate. While
the focus of The Nature of God is on the philosophy of religion, Hughes widens
his scope to consider its implications in epistemology, metaphysics and moral
philosophy. The issues he considers include necessity and possibility, the relation
of logic to epistemology and the connections between causation and moral
philosophy.
This book will interest senior undergraduates with some grounding in
philosophy as well as those working in the philosophy of religion. Hughes’ non-
technical approach will encourage and enable the reader to understand the
arguments about the nature of God from both a classical and a contemporary
perspective.
Gerard J.Hughes is a Jesuit, and Chair of the Department of Philosophy at
Heythrop College, University of London.
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The Problems of Philosophy
Founding editor: Ted Honderich
Editors: Tim Crane and Jonathan Wolff, University College London
This series addresses the central problems of philosophy. Each book gives a fresh
account of a particular philosophical theme by offering two perspectives on the
subject: the historical context and the author’s own distinctive and original
contribution.
The books are written to be accessible to students of philosophy and related
disciplines, while taking the debate to a new level.
DEMOCRACY MIND-BODY IDENTITY
Ross Harrison THEORIES*
Cynthia Macdonald
THE EXISTENCE OF THE WORLD*
Reinhardt Grossman THE NATURE OF ART*
A.L.Cothey
NAMING AND REFERENCE
R.J.Nelson PERSONAL IDENTITY*
Harold W.Noonan
EXPLAINING EXPLANATION*
David-Hillel Ruben POLITICAL FREEDOM
George G.Brenkert
IF P, THEN Q*
David H.Sanford THE RATIONAL FOUNDATION
OF ETHICS*
SCEPTICISM
T.L.S.Sprigge
Christopher Hookway
PRACTICAL REASONING*
HUMAN CONSCIOUSNESS
Robert Audi
Alastair Hannay
RATIONALITY*
THE IMPLICATIONS OF
Harold I.Brown
DETERMINISM
Roy Weatherford THOUGHT AND LANGUAGE*
J.M.Moravcsik
THE INFINITE*
A.W.Moore THE WEAKNESS OF THE WILL
Justin Gosling
KNOWLEDGE AND BELIEF
Frederic F.Schmitt VAGUENESS
Timothy Williamson
KNOWLEDGE OF THE EXTERNAL
WORLD PERCEPTION
Bruce Aune Howard Robinson
MORAL KNOWLEDGE* THE NATURE OF GOD
Alan Goldman Gerard Hughes
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KNOWLEDGE OF THE EXTERNAL
WORLD PERCEPTION
Bruce Aune Howard Robinson
MORAL KNOWLEDGE* THE NATURE OF GOD
Alan Goldman Gerard Hughes
* Also available in paperback
The Nature of God
Gerard J.Hughes
London and New York
First published 1995
by Routledge
11 New Fetter Lane, London EC4P 4EE
This edition published in the Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2005.
“To purchase your own copy of this or any of Taylor & Francis or Routledge’s collection
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Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada
by Routledge
29 West 35th Street, New York, NY 10001
© 1995 Gerard J.Hughes
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced
or utilized in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means,
now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording,
or in any information storage or retrieval system, without
permission in writing from the publishers.
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
Hughes, Gerard J.
The nature of God/Gerard J.Hughes.
p. cm.—(Problems of philosophy)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
1. God-Attributes. 2. God-Attributes-History of doctrines.
I. Title. II. Series: Problems of philosophy (Routledge (Firm))
BT130.H76 1994
212–dc20 94–32685
ISBN 0-203-98169-3 Master e-book ISBN
ISBN 0-415-10950-7 (hbk)
ISBN 0-415-12075-6 (pbk)
Contents
Acknowledgements ix
A Note on References x
Introduction 1
I Existence 3
The history of the problem 4
Is existence an attribute? 4
Hume 4
Kant 7
Aquinas 9
Is necessary existence an attribute? 11
Aquinas 11
Hume 13
Kant 15
Some answers 19
Existence 19
Necessity, possibility and potentiality 21
De re potentiality 24
II Simplicity 29
The history of the problem 30
Aquinas 30
The background assumptions 30
Simplicity as the absence of de re potentiality 32
Hume 42
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Kant 46
Some answers 48
Simplicity and necessary existence 49
Necessary existence and transcendence 50
Describing the transcendent 51
III Omniscience 53
The history of the problem 53
Aquinas 54
Omniscience and simplicity 54
Omniscience about a time-bound world 57
Omniscience and contingent future events 60
William of Ockham 65
Luis de Molina 75
Some answers 82
The simplicity of God’s knowing 82
God’s untensed knowledge 83
Is God’s knowledge necessary? 84
God’s uncaused knowing 88
IV Omnipotence 93
The history of the problem 94
Aquinas 94
The general account 94
Can God undo the past? 95
Can God make other things than he does make? 96
Could God create better? 98
William of Ockham 99
The general account 99
Can God undo the past? 103
God’s unusual powers 103
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Descartes 108
The general picture 108
The implications of the general position 113
Some answers 117
Omnipotence and non-contradiction 117
Actions possible for God 119
What God can and cannot bring about 121
V Goodness 125
General conditions for blameworthiness 126
Condition 1: The morally relevant description of creation 128
‘Natural’ evils 129
Moral evil 132
Condition 2: Did God bring about the world so described? 133
Condition 3: Is God morally accountable for a world containing 135
evil?
Condition 4: Does God know he should have done better? 140
Conclusion 151
Notes 157
Bibliography 177
Index 181
Acknowledgements
I would like to thank my colleagues, Philip Endean, Janice Thomas and Peter
Vardy for the many helpful comments they offered on earlier drafts of this book.
I would especially like to express my gratitude to the Philosophy Department of
Santa Clara University for inviting me to be the Austin Fagothey Visiting
Professor during the autumn of 1992. Their warm welcome and stimulating
company provided a most congenial environment in which to work. Particular
thanks are due to Linda Zagzebski and the other anonymous reader whom the
publishers invited to comment on the manuscript, and whose many helpful
comments were extremely valuable.
I would also wish to acknowledge several permissions from other publishers to
reproduce translations of classical texts: to Cornell University Press for extracts
from Alfred J.Freddoso’s De Molina: On Divine Foreknowledge; to the
University of Notre Dame Press for extracts from Marilyn McCord Adams’s
William Ockham; to Cambridge University Press for extracts from John
Cottingham et al., Descartes: Select Philosophical Writings; and to The Hackett
Publishing Company for permission to reprint extracts from Marilyn McCord
Adams and Norman Kretzmann’s William Ockham: Pre-destination, God’s
Foreknowledge, and Future Contingents, to whom all rights are reserved.