Modern Philosophy, the Subject, and the God of the Bible

• Published in: Sophia Vol. 54; no. 4; pp. 563 - 576
• Main Author: Polka, Brayton
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Dordrecht Springer Netherlands 01.12.2015; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Aristotle; Bible; Biblical Philosophy Paper; Education; God; Logic; Metaphysics; Non-Western Philosophy; Philosophy; Philosophy of Religion; Religious Studies; Theology; Bible; Necessary existence; Spinoza; Ontological argument; God; Philosophy; Subject; Aristotle; Kant
• ISSN: 0038-1527; 1873-930X
• DOI: 10.1007/s11841-015-0504-y

In my paper, I undertake to show that the God of the Bible is the subject of modern philosophy, i.e., that philosophy is biblical and that the Bible is philosophical. Central to the argument of my paper is an analysis of the fundamental difference between the philosophy of Aristotle (consistent with Socrates and Plato), as based on the law of contradiction and thus on the contradictory opposition between necessity and existence, and the philosophy of, in particular, Spinoza and Kant, as based on the transcendental logic of the necessary relationship of thought and existence. Thus, I argue that the ontological argument (proving the existence of God) demonstrates the necessary existence of the thinking subject and of the subject thought, at once human and divine. In short, metaphysics is practical reason, the practice of doing unto others what you want others to do unto you, and reason is metaphysical practice, the practice of proving that there is one thing that you, a subject, cannot think without it necessarily existing, and that is the other subject (the neighbor/God).