RL: VIA NEGATIVA Flashcards
What is the problem with using our normal language to describe God?
We have words that apply only to finite, imperfect things such as ‘judge’ or ‘father’.
What is the via negative proposing?
That we should only speak about God in negatives to emphasise the difference between God and humanity.
What is the issue with saying ‘God is love’?
Human love has many flaws and jealousies, fluctuations and limits.
What is the problem with saying ‘God is good’?
Our own goodness is so flawed and temporary that it is wrong to use the same concept and try to apply it to God.
What do people who support the via negativa state?
That it is better to accept the mysteries of God than to try to pin God down by using flawed concepts.
How does the via negativa solve these problems?
By pointing out what God is not, people can still communicate the infinity and mystery of God.
What does Dionysius argue about the via negativa?
It is the only way to speak about God, because God is beyond all human understanding and imagination.
What does Dionysius state about the soul’s need to be unified with God?
Beyond the realms of sense of perception and rationality, entering obscurity.
What does Dionysius state about sense and reason?
It is counter-productive to speak of God as though God can be perceived by the senses or that we can reach God through reason.
What does Maimondes state about the via negativa?
Supporter. Stated that to say what God is not would move us closer to understanding what God is, without limiting Him in our thoughts.
What does the Via Negativa come closest too?
Meeting the challenge of the falsification principle.
What has Stiver argued in support of the Via Negativa?
No cognitive or descriptive content is allowed and this approach undercuts any approach involving cognitive meaning.
How did Davis criticise Maimonides?
Only saying what something is does not give any indication of what it actually is.
How can it be argued that the via negativa is based on a contradiction?
We do naturally speak the unspeakable even if it is in a negative way.
How can the via negativa be criticised by Flew?
A definition of God that speaks only of negative attributes ‘dies a death of a thousand qualifications’.
