Trinitarian Ontology and the Division of Being

A rosminianan reflection

Abstract

Rosmini articulated a Trinitarian ontology for which being, thought and ethical reciprocally contain each other in terms of a ‘grammatical’ propositionality. Since this order exists even in God it provides a solution to the problem of how being, though not a genus, can be divided. However Rosmini also provided a Scotist solution to this problem in terms of being as an abstract essence. The second solution is inconsistent with the first and should be rejected along with kindred purely phenomenological and semi-ontologist readings. The first, Trinitarian solution itself only works if it is modified in terms of analogy, paradox and a radically neo-Chalecedonian Christology