> For god cannot be conceived apart from thought
I was confused by this phrase, but I think in context this must mean that god/a god can't be conceived of as a thoughtless being (like a p-zombie).
For me, I would take this to mean that god cannot be experienced apart from thought. ---> God exists only as a mental construct.
For me, I would take this to mean that god cannot be experienced apart from thought. ---> God exists only as a mental construct.
Just for clarity to lurkers, I think most everyone agrees with the first sentence, at least as having something to do with "images."
But as to the second sentence, that's the idealist position, and others take the realist position that they exist regardless of whether we think about them.
The conversation has moved on somewhat from this point, but I just started another thread on a particular excerpt from Lucretius as to the logical possibilities as to how anything can be "eternal." I think that excerpt is relevant to this "gods" discussion as well, because if they are to be deathless they must somehow relate to one of those categories.
Later, in Methods, Philodemos makes a statement that seems to support what was stated above: “We should refer our notion of the gods to the revelations which take place by mental perception and which guarantee clearly that heavenly and eternal beings exist.”
