Posted on September 17, 2008 by Scott Carson
In a post at Pillar and Ground of the Truth, Fr. Gregory Hogg has compared the statement of St. Augustine in De Trinitate 1.1.3, that it is “difficult” to contemplate and have full knowledge of God’s substance, with the statement of Gregory the Theologian in Theological Orations 28.4 that is is “impossible” to express God [...]
Filed under: metaphysics, philosophy of religion, theology | Tagged: energies, essence, God, ontology, properties | 55 Comments »
Posted on September 7, 2008 by Michael Liccione
In my previous post on transubstantiation, I proposed that the consecrated elements in the Eucharist been seen as “one substance” with the risen Christ in a way analogous to how “the divine and human natures of the Incarnate Word, interrelated as Chalcedon taught, form that one substance or hypostasis which is God the Son [...]
Filed under: dogma, metaphysics, theology | Tagged: Eucharist, nature, ontology, substance, transubstantiation | 5 Comments »
Posted on September 3, 2008 by Michael Liccione
Baylor philosopher Alex Pruss argues that they do not: “There are no artefacts, at least not in any metaphysically serious way.” After reading his whole post, I remain puzzled.
Clearly, we can say that artefacts “exist,” or that “there are artefacts,” if we’re talking existence in the sense of the existential quantifier. I take it Pruss [...]
Filed under: metaphysics, philosophy | Tagged: artefacts, ontology, Pruss, quantification, transubstantiation | 16 Comments »
Posted on August 29, 2008 by Michael Liccione
Fr. Al Kimel recently wrote a post that got me thinking about transubstantiation again. Its title is a question: Is Transubstantiation Bodily Enough? The long discussion sparked by that post over at De Cure Animarum stimulated anew my thinking about this topic. As with such questions as “Were you a zygote?“, which Scott addressed in [...]
Filed under: dogma, metaphysics, theology | Tagged: Incarnation, ontology, substance, transubstantiation | 54 Comments »
Posted on August 28, 2008 by Scott Carson
Bill Vallicella of Maverick Philosopher has asked for assessments of an argument by Barry Smith and Berit Brogaard to the effect that zygotes are not substantially the same as the successor entitites that they (apparently) develop into. Bill summarizes the argument as follows:
1. The unicellular zygote is predestined to undergo fission.
2. Whatever undergoes fission ceases [...]
Filed under: philosophy | Tagged: abortion, mereology, ontology, substance | 22 Comments »
