On Analogy: An Essay Historical and Systematic

The investigation of analogy has two aims. First to find out how analogical predication works in general and then, second, to see how these findings can then be applied to the specific field of religious languages about God. In this study the problem of analogy is traced through the history of philosophy and theology beginning from the Presocratics via Plato, Aristotle and St. Thomas Aquinas. Special attention is then given to the debate in the anglo-saxon context of the 20th century. Finally the author suggests that modern theories of meaning (especially by Hilary Putnam) make the traditional approach to the problem of analogy dubious as it presupposes that meaning can be established leaving aside the context of a word.