Date

7-2016

Department

Philosophical Studies

Degree

Master of Arts (MA)

Chair

Edward N. Martin

Keywords

Brian Leftow, Creation, Divine Ideas, Exemplarism, God and Abstract Objects, Imagination

Disciplines

Comparative Philosophy | History of Philosophy | Metaphysics | Other Philosophy

Abstract

This thesis was on how God is related to the truth-values of propositions on possible worlds - specifically, those propositions that do not seem to be about Him and constitute His ideas for what to create. It opened with a survey of some historical positions with special emphasis on Aquinas, Leibniz, Spinoza and Kant. Next, some criticisms were given for these so-called deity theories (i.e., the belief that possibilities are dependent on God and God must, by nature, recognize the necessary truths He does) with the most space given to Brian Leftow’s critiques. The second chapter detailed Brian Leftow’s theological modality. In it, secular modality (i.e., those modal truths that do not seem to explicitly reference or quantity over God in their content) is excogitated in an instant from eternity when God gets a set of creaturely natures in one imaginative act. His preferences that are based on His nature then determine the modality of what God thinks up. A number of objections were raised for the Leftowian project and the last chapter attempted to supplement an older deity theory with some insights from Leftow in order to avoid his initial criticisms.

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