Epistemic modal logic, universal philosophical epistemology, and natural theology: God's omniscience as a formal-axiological law of the two-valued algebra of metaphysics as formal axiology (demonstrating the law by "computing" relevant evaluation-functions)
The method of constructing and investigating discrete mathematical models is applied to the problem of Omniscience-by-God, which is located at the intersection of epistemology, theol-ogy, and epistemic logic. For the first time in epistemology and philosophical theology, the tenet of God's Omni...
| Published in: | Вестник Томского государственного университета. Философия. Социология. Политология № 61. С. 5-13 |
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| Main Author: | |
| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://vital.lib.tsu.ru/vital/access/manager/Repository/koha:000720855 Перейти в каталог НБ ТГУ |
| Summary: | The method of constructing and investigating discrete mathematical models is applied to the problem of Omniscience-by-God, which is located at the intersection of epistemology, theol-ogy, and epistemic logic. For the first time in epistemology and philosophical theology, the tenet of God's Omniscience is formulated by the artificial language of two-valued algebra of metaphysics as formal axiology, and demonstrated as a formal-axiological law of that alge-bra by "computing" relevant evaluation-functions. The present article continues the author's attempts to apply the conceptual apparatus and meth-ods of discrete mathematics to analytical theology, namely, to represent and solve difficult problems of philosophical theology by means of constructing and investigating their models at the level of artificial language of two-valued algebraic system of metaphysics as formal axiology. The author has already published a paper on discrete mathematical modeling the tenet of God's omnipotence in [Tomsk State University Journal of Philosophy, Sociology and Political Science. 2019. Vol. 47. P. 87-93]. In com-parison with the mentioned paper, the present article submits significantly new scientific results of constructing and investigating a discrete mathematical model of another famous attribute of God, namely, of His omniscience. In contrast to the tenet of God's omnipotence affirming that He is al-mighty, the tenet of God's omniscience affirms that He knows everything. However, the literature on philosophical theology contains indicating and discussing a set of nontrivial logical and epistemologi-cal problems concerning All-Knowing-God. Just these problems (and solving them at the level of their mathematical model) make up the subject-matter of the given article. The paper starts with explicating a formal-axiological meaning of the statement "God knows everything" by explicating formal-axiological meanings of the words "God", "knows", and "thing". In particular, it is emphasized that the word "knowledge" is a homonym possessing at least three qualitatively different meanings, namely, "a-priori knowledge", "empirical knowledge", and knowledge-in-general". It is demonstrated that God's knowledge is not empirical but a-priori one. All the formal-axiological meanings under discus-sion are considered as evaluation-functions and defined precisely by tables. Significantly new scien-tific result of the present article: for the first time in the world literature on philosophical theology, the tenet of All-Knowing God is precisely formulated by means of the artificial language of two-valued algebra of metaphysics as formal axiology, and proved as a formal-axiological law in this algebra by computing relevant evaluation-tables. The hitherto never published affirming God's omniscience as the law of two-valued algebra of metaphysics as formal axiology is quite nontrivial and psychological-ly unexpected one, although from the viewpoint of mathematics proper, its proof is simple. |
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| Bibliography: | Библиогр.: 25 назв. |
| ISSN: | 1998-863X |