The Five-Category Ontology? E.J. Lowe and the Ontology of the Divine

TheoLogica: An International Journal for Philosophy of Religion and Philosophical Theology 5:81-99 (2021)
  Copy   BIBTEX

Abstract

E.J.Lowe was a prominent and theistically–inclined philosopher who developed and defended a four–category ontology with roots in Aristotle’s Categories. But Lowe engaged in little philosophical theology and said even less about how a divine being might fit into his considered ontology. This paper explores ways in which the reality of a divine being might be squared with Lowe’s ontology. I motivate the exploration with a puzzle that suggests Lowe must reject either divine aseity or the traditional view that God is a substance. After showing that the puzzle cannot be overcome by rejecting one of its premises, I consider ways in which Lowe might try to reject the puzzle wholesale. I argue that the best way to reject the puzzle is to countenance a fifth fundamental category, the category of supernatural substance.

Links

PhilArchive

External links

  • This entry has no external links. Add one.
Setup an account with your affiliations in order to access resources via your University's proxy server

Through your library

Similar books and articles

The No-Category Ontology.O. Bueno, S. A. Shalkowski & J. Busch - 2015 - The Monist 98 (3):233-245.
Instantiation and Characterization: Problems in Lowe's Four-Category Ontology.Markku Keinänen - 2018 - In Timothy Tambassi (ed.), Studies in the Ontology of E.J. Lowe. Neunkirchen-Seelscheid: Editiones Scholasticae. pp. 109-124.
Lowe's Unorthodox Dispositionalism.Travis Dumsday - 2016 - Res Philosophica 93 (1):79-101.
A defence of the four-category ontology.E. J. Lowe - forthcoming - Argument Und Analyse:225--240.

Analytics

Added to PP
2021-05-26

Downloads
234 (#87,749)

6 months
107 (#41,955)

Historical graph of downloads
How can I increase my downloads?

Author's Profile

Graham Renz
Marian University

Citations of this work

What is God's Power?Graham Renz - 2021 - European Journal for Philosophy of Religion 13 (3):87-112.

Add more citations

References found in this work

Ontological Dependence.Tuomas E. Tahko & E. J. Lowe - 2020 - Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy.
The Universe as We Find It.John Heil - 2012 - Oxford, GB: Oxford University Press.
Substance substantiated.C. B. Martin - 1980 - Australasian Journal of Philosophy 58 (1):3 – 10.
Metaphysics as the Science of Essence.E. J. Lowe - 2018 - In Alexander Carruth, Sophie Gibb & John Heil (eds.), Ontology, Modality, and Mind: Themes from the Metaphysics of E. J. Lowe. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press. pp. 14-34.

View all 15 references / Add more references