Tabatabaie on Semantics of Divine Attributes

Abstract

In the majority of his works, Tabatabaie takes the side of cataphaticism about divine attributes. But the theory is presented in his different works in different ways. There are at list 3 ways in which he has presented the theory including (1) verticality of meaning regardless of instances, (2) verticality of meaning with respect to expression of instances, and (3) ungradedness of meaning with respect to the goal and the common function. In this article, we shall try to explain and analyze the three models, and give examples of each one from his works. Notwithstanding that cataphaticism have advantages and transcends the finitude-oriented natural language and makes use of it with regard to God, it suffers from noteworthy shortcomings.

Keywords

• allamah tabatabaie
• cataphaticism
• divine attributes