What’s a mode and vantage in divine simplicity?
Question #39: What do “mode” and “vantage” mean in the updated relation first paradigm on divine simplicity?
In the current relational-first framework, a mode is best called a relational primitive: an irreducible way the one divine essence is, Father, Son, or Spirit, without importing extra parts or passive potencies. Each primitive is “self-standing” in the sense that it is the whole essence, not a slice of it, echoing Aquinas’s claim that the divine relations are identical with God’s being itself (ST I q. 28) and thus function as explanatory bedrock. A vantage, by contrast, designates the specific relational stance by which that same essence is lived: the Father’s unbegotten source hood, the Son’s being-from-another, the Spirit’s relational procession. In short, the primitive tells what each Person is, the entire Godhead as a distinct relation, while the vantage tells how that primitive is voiced in the divine life. Because both terms speak only of relations, they preserve absolute simplicity: three real relational primitives, each with its own vantage, yet one undivided act of being.
For background see Aquinas, ST I q. 28; Benovsky on explanatory primitives; Geach on Cambridge change; Marion on saturated givenness; and Dryer’s “Relation = Essence.”
Bibliography
Robert Dryer, “Relation = Essence.” https://robertdryer.com/defending-the-principle-of-relationality-a-relational-first-paradigm-for-divine-simplicity-and-trinity/relation-equals-essence/
Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologiae I q. 28 “The Divine Relations.” https://www.newadvent.org/summa/1028.htm
Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologiae I q. 28 parallel text and notes. https://www.logicmuseum.com/wiki/Authors/Thomas_Aquinas/Summa_Theologiae/Part_I/Q28
Jiri Benovsky, “Meta-Metaphysics.” https://philpapers.org/rec/BENM-7
Jiri Benovsky, “Primitiveness, Metaontology, and Explanatory Power.” https://philarchive.org/archive/BENPMA
Peter T. Geach, “Cambridge Change,” in Logic Matters (1972). https://www.jstor.org/stable/42968647
Jean-Luc Marion, “Saturated Phenomena, the Icon, and Revelation,” Aporia 24/1 (2014). https://aporia.byu.edu/pdfs/mason-saturated_phenomena.pdf
(for more see questions #12, #15, #27, #30, & #38)
Also see Part III here: Introduction to defending divine simplicity and understanding SSGO