Combining Aquinas & Wittgenstien

(Originally written March 22, 2007 in Book 25)

Burrell: Combining Aquinas & Wittgenstien

1) Univocal language may be understood as ordinary language usage in a Wittgenstienian setting. Family resemblance is strongly similar to analogy.

2) Transcendental terms are trans-categorical. These terms derive their meaning from their particular language games and as they re trans-categorical they are analogical.

3) Appraisal terms (i.e. "good") function similar to transcendental terms.

4) Transcendental and appraisal terms are crucial for language about God ontologically and semantically.

a) Ontologically, God is the cause of the world and thus there is an analogy between talk of God and talk of the world.
b) Semantically, the transcendental and appraisal terms are applied to God without their usual predication

5) Analogical language lies in a decision. It originates out of the community of the speaker/listener.

Burrell gives analogy the deserved ontological setting while engaging Wittgenstein's concepts.

But, Burrell has dropped univocal concepts and is not entirely immune to equivocation charges.

There must be a univocal concept underneath all analogy to avoid equivocation.