Utrum verum et simplex convertantur. The Simplicity of God in Aquinas and Swinburne

European Journal for Philosophy of Religion 10 (2):23-50 (2018)
  Copy   BIBTEX

Abstract

This paper explores Thomas Aquinas’ and Richard Swinburne’s doctrines of simplicity in the context of their philosophical theologies. Both say that God is simple. However, Swinburne takes simplicity as a property of the theistic hypothesis, while for Aquinas simplicity is a property of God himself. For Swinburne, simpler theories are ceteris paribus more likely to be true; for Aquinas, simplicity and truth are properties of God which, in a certain way, coincide – because God is metaphysically simple. Notwithstanding their different approaches, some unreckoned parallels between their thoughts are brought to light.

Categories

Keywords

Reprint years

DOI

10.24204/ejpr.v10i2.2555

Links

PhilArchive

External links

Setup an account with your affiliations in order to access resources via your University's proxy server

Through your library

My notes

Similar books and articles

Swinburne on the Simplicity of Theism.Bruce Langtry - 2011 - European Journal for Philosophy of Religion 3 (2):409 - 426.
Richard Swinburne, the existence of God, and principle P.Jeremy Gwiazda - 2009 - Sophia 48 (4):393-398.
Is the Principle of Testimony Simply Epistemically Fundamental or Simply not? Swinburne on Knowledge by Testimony.Nicola Mößner & Markus Seidel - 2008 - In Nicola Mößner, Sebastian Schmoranzer & Christian Weidemann (eds.), Richard Swinburne. Christian Philosophy in a Modern World. Ontos.
Aquinas on Divine Simplicity.John Lamont - 1997 - The Monist 80 (4):521-538.
Is Simplicity an Adequate Criterion of Theory Choice.Julia Göhner, Marie I. Kaiser & Christian Suhm - 2008 - In N. Mößner, S. Schmoranzer & C. Weidemann (eds.), Richard Swinburne. Frankfurt/Main, GER: ontos. pp. 33-45.
Richard Swinburne, 'The Existence of God'.Jeremy Gwiazda - 2009 - Sophia 48 (4):393 - 398.
Prostota (Boga - Simplicity of God).Marek Pepliński - 2016 - In Janusz Salamon (ed.), Przewodnik po filozofii religii. Nurt analityczny, Kraków 2016. Wydawnictwo WAM. pp. 87-107.
Simplicity As Evidence of Truth.Richard Swinburne - 1997 - Milwaukee: Marquette University Press.
Two Peas in a Single Polytheistic Pod: Richard Swinburne and John Hick.Daniel Howard-Snyder - 2016 - Journal of Philosophical Research 41 (Supplement):17-32.
The Coherence of Aquinas's Account of Divine Simplicity.David Kovacs - 2018 - Dissertation,
A Critical Analysis of Swinburne's Argument for Theism.Loree Kent Klein - 2003 - Dissertation, The University of Utah
Divine Simplicity: Aquinas and the Current Debate.Vincent Michael Dever - 1994 - Dissertation, Marquette University
On a complex theory of a simple God: an investigation in Aquinas' philosophical theology.Christopher Hughes - 1989 - Ithaca: Cornell University Press.
Aquinas, Divine Simplicity, and Divine Freedom.W. Matthews Grant - 2003 - Proceedings of the American Catholic Philosophical Association 77:129-144.
Simplicity And Comprehensibility Of Creation In St. Thomas Aquinas’s Metaphysics.Paweł Święcki - 2010 - Studia Philosophica Wratislaviensia 5 (2):115-126.

Analytics

Added to PP
2018-06-12

Downloads
371 (#54,303)

6 months
90 (#51,597)

Historical graph of downloads
How can I increase my downloads?

Author's Profile

Citations of this work

Divine Simplicity and the Grammar of God-talk: Comments on Hughes, Tapp, and Schärtl.S. J. Otto Muck - 2018 - European Journal for Philosophy of Religion 10 (2):89-104.

Add more citations

References found in this work

The Existence of God.Richard Swinburne - 1979 - Oxford, GB: Oxford University Press UK.
The Existence of God.Richard Swinburne - 1981 - Philosophical Quarterly 31 (122):85-88.
Divine omniscience and voluntary action.Nelson Pike - 1965 - Philosophical Review 74 (1):27-46.
Simplicity.Alan Baker - 2008 - Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy.

View all 21 references / Add more references