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Question: Evaluate the claim that analogy can successfully be used to express the human understanding of God.
Answer: A common belief amongst many philosophers is that we cannot describe what is literally true of God. This is due to the fact that ordinary human language is limited and cannot define the infinite nature of God. St Thomas Aquinas used the term via eminentiae (the way of eminence) to show that what we know of God is only partial. However, Aquinas did believe that we should be able to describe God using positive statements rather than resorting to using via negativa which is to describe God through negation. The way Aquinas suggested to do this is through defining God analogically. Analogy is when a term is used when there is more difference and similarities in meaning so it is both equivocal (same word different meaning) and univocal (same word same meaning).
John Hick also talked about ‘upwards’ analogy of attribution such as a Dog’s obedience to a human going up to a child’s ...(short extract)
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- Subject: Philosophy
- Course: Philosophy
- Level: A-Level
- Year: Not applicable
- Mark: Not available
- Words: 559
- Date submitted: April 29, 2016
- Date written: Not available
- References: No
- Document type: Essay*
- Essay ID: 7330
