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Analyzing Aseity

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 October 2019

Sarah Adams  and
Jon Robson
Sarah Adams
Affiliation:
Independent scholar, Oxford
Jon Robson*
Affiliation:
Department of philosophy, University of Nottingham, Nottingham
*
*Corresponding author. Email: jonathan.robson@nottingham.ac.uk
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Abstract

The doctrine of divine aseity has played a significant role in the development of classical theism. However, very little attention has been paid in recent years to the question of how precisely aseity should be characterized. We argue that this neglect is unwarranted since extant characterizations of this central divine attribute quickly encounter difficulties. In particular, we present a new argument to show that the most widely accepted contemporary account of aseity is inconsistent. We then consider the prospects for developing a new account of aseity which avoids the pitfalls we have highlighted.

Keywords

Aseitydivine independencedivine attributesAnselmian theismmetaphysicsreligion

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Type
Article
Information
Canadian Journal of Philosophy , Volume 50 , Issue 2 , February 2020 , pp. 251 - 267
Copyright
© The Author(s) 2019. Published by Canadian Journal of Philosophy

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