The Metaphysical Argument for God’s Existence

Keywords: argument for God’s existence, Thomas Aquinas, essence, act of being, participation

Abstract

In this paper, I present main theses of Aquinas Way to God: The Proof in the De Ente et Essentia by Gaven Kerr. The book in question is a contemporary interpretation and defence of Thomas Aquinas’s argument for the existence of God, based on the real distinction between the essence of the thing and its act of being. I stress the fact that Kerr underlines the metaphysical character of Thomas’s argument and the role of participation in Aquinas’s understanding of the act of being. In the last part of the article, I discuss Kerr’s interpretation of Aquinas’s argument for the real distinction between essence and an act of being, as well as Kerr’s own argument. These arguments are of particular importance since they provide metaphysical presuppositions for the argument for God’s existence considered in Kerr’s book. As for the first argument, I argue that the first part of Aquinas’s argumentation (the so-called Intellectus Essentiae Argument) pertains to the real order rather than conceptual. Concerning the second argument, I attempt to highlight the difficulties of Kerr’s understanding of Thomist esse as a principle of the existence of a thing.

Author Biography

Krzysztof Ośko, The John Paul II Catholic University of Lublin, Faculty of Philosophy

Krzysztof Ośko, O.P., MTheol—aPhD student at the John Paul II Catholic University of Lublin

References

Dewan, Lawrence. 2005. “On Anthony Kenny’s Aquinas on Being.” Nova et Vetera (English edition), vol. 3, no 2: 335–400.

Kenny, Anthony. 2002. Aquinas on Being, Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Kerr, Gaven. 2015. Aquinas’s Way to God: The Proof in De Ente et Essentia. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Twetten, David B. 2007. “Really Distinguishing Essence from Esse.” In Wisdom’s Apprentice: Thomistic Essays in Honour of Lawrence Dewan, O.P., edited by Peter A. Kwasniewski, 40–84. Washington, D.C.: The Catholic University of America Press.

Weidemann, Hermann. 1986. “The Logic of Being in Thomas Aquinas.” In The Logic of Being, edited by Simo Knuuttila and Jaakko Hintikka, 181–200. Dordrecht: D. Reidel Publishing Company.

Published
2019-12-23
Section
Articles