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How to Prove the Existence of a Supreme Being?

M. Bugár, István (2002) How to Prove the Existence of a Supreme Being? Acta Antiqua, 42 (1-4). pp. 203-215. ISSN 0044-5975

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Abstract

This essay undertakes the task of unravelling the history of the concept of the “Supreme Being” from the beginnings of Greek philosophy to the emergence of Christianity, with a special attention to a system of argumentation meant to demonstrate the existence - and eternity - of such a being. Referred to here as the “gradation argument”, it is related to the ontological proof, and thus our inquiry belongs to the discussion about the prehistory of the latter. The key authors in the development of the argument discussed are Xenophanes, Plato, Aristotle, and Cleanthes, but I devote a short excursus to the presence of the concept of the Supreme Deity in pseudo-Pythagorean and Middle Platonist authors, and to the epistemological aspect of the concept that connects it with the via eminentiae. Besides the historical inquiry, I examine the validity of the proof and propose a mathematical model that helps us to see its merits and limits.

Item Type: Article
Subjects: P Language and Literature / nyelvészet és irodalom > PA Classical philology / klasszika-filológia
Depositing User: xKatalin xBarta
Date Deposited: 01 Feb 2017 09:48
Last Modified: 31 Oct 2022 00:15
URI: http://real.mtak.hu/id/eprint/46989

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