Onto-theology is a term coined by Emmanuel Kant to designate theology as a metaphysics which exists independently of all experience. For Kant onto-theology is supposed to be a form of transcendental theology that does not understand God as part of human experiences, but rather relates to him through transcendental concepts and thinking.
While for Kant this term designates a
speculative deduction of God based on his conception, Martin Heidegger saw onto-theology as the
internal law of being and the origin of metaphysics. Heidegger uses this
term to describe traditional metaphysics in terms of how it thinks of the
highest being. The idea that a generally higher being or essence - be it God,
the substance in Spinoza, the absolute in Hegel etc. - is necessary as a
guarantor for the order of the world is referred to by Heidegger as an
ontotheological form of metaphysics .
Definition of ontho-theology
Kant defines onto-theology as this
transcendental rational theology which believes that it knows the existence of
the original being by simple concepts, without recourse to experience.
With Heidegger, onto-theology becomes the
observation of a structural duality of metaphysics. He argues that throughout
the history of Western metaphysics being is understood as god's primary trait.
Any question relating to the meaning of the word being immediately branches off
towards the exposition of this duality. Forsaking the ontological reliance on
theology is a way for phenomenology to go back to existence itself.
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