Original scientific paper

Reflections on God by Herman Dalmatin

Aleksandra Golubović ; Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, University of Rijeka, Rijeka, Croatia

Abstract

This paper analyzes the idea of God that is developed in the Discussion about Essentials (Rasprava o bitima), a philosophical work written by the earliest Croatian philosopher Herman Dalmatin. Special attention is given to analysis of the two core essences - as Dalmatin refers to them in the first book of his Discussion - causation and motion. By analyzing the phenomena of causation and motion, Dalmatin reaches a conclusion regarding the existence of God similar to that of Aristotle. A similar interpretation of God is still found in contemporary philosophy of religion, and it includes the so-called cosmological argument. Therefore, the paper focuses on how Herman refers to God and compares this to contemporary accounts of the same subject. The aim is to show that in Dalmatin’s work we can find elements that can be interpreted as a version of the formulation of what is today known as cosmological proof, though obviously in a still underdeveloped form.

Keywords

Herman Dalmatin; essence; causation; motion; proof of God; God’s attributes

Hrčak ID:

272203

URI

https://hrcak.srce.hr/272203

Publication date:

20.12.2012.

Article data in other languages: croatian

Visits: 840 *