58吃瓜

The doctrine of divine simplicity serves two roles in Christian theology鈥攊t upholds the creator-creation distinction by saying that only the divine ontology is absolutely simple whereas every other created being is a composite, and it supports divine aseity by identifying the divine attributes with God. Traditional and contemporary versions of divine simplicity have filled these roles by assuming constituent ontology. Relational ontologies face two problems: God and creation are both metaphysically simple as the relational framework itself denies metaphysical parts; and a relational understanding of property as commonality is a violation of divine aseity. This paper presents an identity-less and non-trivial model of divine simplicity based in a relational ontology. By adopting prototype theory for qualitative spaces, the two roles of divine simplicity are satisfied, and the infamous theistic identity claims are avoided. Theories of properties based on conceptual spaces, using qualitative notions of similarity, and prototypes are common in philosophy of cognitive science. In this model, divine attributes are properties understood as regions of qualitative spaces. Additionally, understanding divine aseity in terms of metaphysical grounding, I argue that prototypes and the proximity relations together ground the properties. Thus, God and some facts about proximity are each a partial ground for the property goodness. By definition, God鈥檚 goodness is at zero proximity to the prototype. As a result, God is the full ground of God鈥檚 properties. This means that they all metaphysically depend on God alone, which affirms divine aseity. This model shows that identity is not the core of the strong account of divine simplicity, rather a consequence of attempting to articulate the doctrine within a particular ontological framework. The aim is to consider what divine simplicity would look like with a paradigm shift away from the constituent ontologies of Aquinas and the Thomists.