Religious Plurality and the Concept of God

Authors

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.15448/1984-6746.2024.1.45335

Keywords:

Theory of concepts, concept of God, philosophy of religion, SQML

Abstract

In this article, I address some higher-order issues involving the concept of God that arise within a pluralistic context: the problem of conceptual unity, the problem of unicity of extension and the problem of homogeneity/heterogeneity. My proposal to solve these questions involves a special hybrid theory of concepts, called the theory of ideal concepts. I argue that when associated with a pluralistic vision of concepts, and formalized within a possible world structure, such theory provides a satisfactory answer to these problems. The formalization is based on a specific version of the Simplest Quantified Modal Logic (SQML), and its presentation is exclusively semantic, keeping technical details to a minimum.

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Author Biography

Ricardo Sousa Silvestre, Universidade Federal de Campina Grande, Campina Grande, Paraíba, Brasil.

PhD in Philosophy from the University of Montreal (Canada). He was a visiting scholar at the Universities of Oxford (United Kingdom), Notre Dame (USA) and Québec (Canada). Author and editor of several works, including the volumes “Vaiṣṇava Concepts of God: Philosophical Perspectives” (Routledge, 2023) and “Beyond Faith and Rationality: Essays on Logic, Religion and Philosophy” (Springer, 2020). Author of more than 40 articles and book chapters in the areas of Logic, Philosophy of Religion and Epistemology. Professor at the Federal University of Campina Grande and the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro and CNPq Research Productivity Fellow. Leader of the project “Concepts of God and the Variety of Theisms in Indian Traditions”, funded by the John Templeton Foundation.

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Published

2024-06-17

How to Cite

Sousa Silvestre, R. (2024). Religious Plurality and the Concept of God. Veritas (Porto Alegre), 69(1), e45335. https://doi.org/10.15448/1984-6746.2024.1.45335

Issue

Vol. 69 No. 1 (2024): Single Volume - Continuous flow

Section

Epistemology & Philosophy of Language

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