Speaker: Graham Oppy (Monash University, Australia)
Chair: Ricardo Silvestre (University of Campina Grande, Brazil)
In this webinar I discuss the following topics: (a) the concept of a god; (b) the concept of God; (c) conceptions of God; (d) the Simple Being; (e) the Greatest Being; and (f) the Perfect Being. I argue that, perhaps, we should think of the word 'god' as a family resemblance term; I suggest that, for some purposes, it is useful to stipulate that gods are venerable beings that have and exercise power over all else. I argue—in line with my book Describing Gods: An Investigation of Divine Attributes (pp. 1-22)—that, necessarily, something is God if and only if it is the one and only god. I insist that this nominal definition does all of the work that we need nominal definitions to do. I suggest that we might extract real definitions of God from theistic theories about God. I then go on to discuss three different real definitions that some theists have given of God: 'the Simple Being', 'the Greatest Being', and 'The Perfect Being'. My discussion of the Greatest Being follows Jeff Speaks' book The Greatest Possible Being. My discussion of the Perfect Being criticises the line that Rasmussen takes in his review of Speaks' book. In addressing these topics, I hope to also address what might be called "the logic of the concept of God".
With best wishes,
Francisco de Assis Mariano
The University of Missouri-Columbia
Please register in advance!
https://www.logicandreligion.com/webinars
