Via Negativa
- Created by: Katy Mills
- Created on: 11-12-12 13:34
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- Via Negativa
- General Points
- People can only talk about God in negative terms
- God is transcendant so you cannot say what God is
- Means - 'Negative way'
- You can say what God is not
- God is not Human therefore he cannot have a body
- You can say what God is not
- From Plotinus is 2nd Century
- This renewed interest of Platos philosophy
- Plotinus says God is linked with Platos form of the good (highest good)
- Strengths
- It comes the closest to meeting the challenge of the falsification principle
- e.g. if we found God's body then it would falsify the statement that God is immortal
- It reminds us that language is unstable when applied to God
- It comes the closest to meeting the challenge of the falsification principle
- weaknesses
- Christians can say that God is good but can never actually know what this means as they can only ever know that God is not evil
- Language cannot describe God - beyond human comprehension (Via negativa doesn't help with this)
- God is ‘Beyond assertion’ and ‘beyond denial’ meaning that whatever you say about God ultimately does not tell people about God – you cannot say absolutely what God is not
- General Points
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