Abstract
THE UNIQUE CHARACTER AND THE FOUNDATION OF JOSEF DEFEVER'S REAL PROOF FOR GOD* Joseph Defever, S.J., was a professor in the faculty of philosophy at the Jesuit College of Louvain up to the time of his death, November 25, 1964. He was imbued with Joseph Maréchal's thought on the dynamism of the human spirit and the epistemological and metaphysical implications of Maréchal's teaching. La Preuve réelle de Dieu is Defever's rethinking of Maréchal'sbasic doctrine, but presentedsomewhat differently from Maréchal's presentation in order to take into account some of Maréchal's critics and more recent philosophical positions. Defever's real proof for the existence of God is proposed by him as a reflexive critical justification and vindication of the traditional proof as presented in the Five Ways of Saint Thomas. Defever's proof is not a substitution or a repetition; it is an invitation to explore the depths and foundation and interior forces which sustain the logical structure of the Five Ways. In Defever's real proof the epistemological and metaphysical presuppositions which are at work in the argumentation of the Five Ways are brought forth for critical reflection and validation. He intends to show that the proof for God is rooted in real experience and clings to our experience of the real and points to a God who is really there, really here, and not merely to some inefficacious concept of God. The setting for Defever's metaphysical journey to the affirmation of the creative presence of God is the concrete human act of knowing the existence of the sensible object. Throughout the entire way of the proof as explicated by Defever the focus is on the interior aspect of the total reality given in the act of knowing, that is, on the knower's reflexive awareness of himself in the actual exercise of himself being-knowing (or, knowing being). I. THE UNIQUE CHARACTER OF THE PROOF FOR GOD Before we discuss Defever's contribution to the contemporary rethinking of the proof for the existence of God it will be helpful to present * This article, based on a doctoral dissertation, Realis Probatio Existentiae Dei Ab Joseph Defever, Methode Transcendentali Explicata is published as a partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy from Pontificium Athenaeum Antonianum, Rome, Italy. ??6HUGH ELLER, O. F. M. a review of certain ideas related to such a proof. This will enable us more clearly to see the peculiar problem of a proof for God and better to understand the value of Defever's approach to this problem. i. The Question of Terminology The "problem of God", says Pierre Fontan, is the most human of problems and the one which is least natural to our knowledge and our activity.1 Most writers on the subject, despite their diversity of opinion about particulars, agree that a proof for God's existence has a distinct charasteristic that sets it apart from every other type of proof.2 The very word "proof" in this context is ambiguous. "The word 'proof comes close to the equivocal in this case ; for it is a matter of affirming that God exists on the basis of signs and clues which are not God, and the first level of our knowledge of these does not comprise the conscious affirmation of the Infinite."3 The term "demonstration" has often been applied to the argumentation for the existence of God, but this, too, is not without its ambiguity. D. Dubarle suggests that St. Thomas used the term "via" in place of "demonstratio" to avoid the danger that the mind'sway to the affirmation of God's existence would be confused with a demonstration in geometry or with scientific demonstration as set forth in Aristotle's Posterior Analytics* Some writers would stress the unique character of the proof for God by calling it a "monstration" instead of a demonstration; but this term etymologically signifies to point out something, or to make something be seen, and A. Dondeyne reminds us that it is no less free of ambiguity when used for the proof 1 Cf. P. Fontan, Adhésion et D...
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