A Semantical Approach to God’s Necessity

Document Type : Original Article

Author

mo.saeedimehr@gmail.com

Abstract

Theists philosophers not only believe in God, but also see Him as a necessary being. Moreover, they believe that at least some of His attributes, such as knowledge and power, are necessary, in the sense that He is Omnipotent and Omniscient. The opponents however rejecting the existence of God, deny any
Divine necessity. Regarding the diversity of interpretations of the modal concepts, including necessity, one may ask whether there is an interpretation about the concept of ‘necessity’ which is reasonably applicable to God’s existence and His attributes. This paper addresses the problem of Divine necessity through a semantical approach and then elaborates the two interpretations which are proposed by Muslim philosophers, namely the essential necessity (darūrat bi-dhāt) and the eternal necessity (drūrat azalī) are applicable to God’s existence and His attributes respectively. The paper will also argue that by appealing to the modal
logic based on possible worlds semantics and applying the notion of metaphysical necessity, we can endorse de re and de dicto necessity of God’s existence and de re necessity of His attributes.

Keywords

References

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