Array
(
    [fullTitle] => 'God' the name
    [abstract] => 
The word ‘God’ is typically thought to be a proper name, a name of a defined entity. From another position it appears to be a description that is fundamentally synonymous to ‘the first of all causes’, or ‘the font et origo of the structure of possibilities’, or ‘the provenience of being’, or ‘the generator of existence’. This lends credence to the view that ‘God’ is a truncated definite description. However, this article proposes that ‘God’ is a name given to whatever is that which is the first of all causes, the font et origo of the structure of possibilities, the provenience of being, the generator of existence. If so, then it is a descriptive name. Yet even among descriptive names ‘God’ is unique, for it is neither convertible to a proper name (unlike ‘Neptune’), nor to a definite description (unlike ‘Jack the Ripper’ and ‘Deep Throat’). ‘God’ is an inveterate descriptive name.

    [authors] => Array
        (
            [0] => Array
                (
                    [givenName] => Earl Stanley Bragado
                    [affiliation] => Department of Philosophy
University of the Philippines in Diliman
                )

        )

    [keywords] => Array
        (
        )

    [doi] => 10.24204/ejpr.v12i1.3232
    [datePublished] => 2020-03-25
    [pdf] => https://www.philosophy-of-religion.eu/menuscript/index.php/ejpr/article/view/3232/version/702/2541
)
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'God' the name

Earl Stanley Bragado
Department of Philosophy University of the Philippines in Diliman

DOI: https://doi.org/10.24204/ejpr.v12i1.3232

Abstract

The word ‘God’ is typically thought to be a proper name, a name of a defined entity. From another position it appears to be a description that is fundamentally synonymous to ‘the first of all causes’, or ‘the font et origo of the structure of possibilities’, or ‘the provenience of being’, or ‘the generator of existence’. This lends credence to the view that ‘God’ is a truncated definite description. However, this article proposes that ‘God’ is a name given to whatever is that which is the first of all causes, the font et origo of the structure of possibilities, the provenience of being, the generator of existence. If so, then it is a descriptive name. Yet even among descriptive names ‘God’ is unique, for it is neither convertible to a proper name (unlike ‘Neptune’), nor to a definite description (unlike ‘Jack the Ripper’ and ‘Deep Throat’). ‘God’ is an inveterate descriptive name.

Keywords:

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