onto-theology

is the error of claiming a philosophy to be a neutral study of being, but raise some particular being (such as water, or forms) to the godlike status of explaining all the rest.

In Heidegger’s view, the danger of objectification for philosophy is even simpler, and even more dangerous. When being is objectified, what always happens is that some specific being is identified with being itself. This began at the dawn of philosophy, when Thales of Miletus (sixth century BC) said that the first principle of everything is water. For Thales, water is not just one type of thing within the world, but rather the uniquely special and privileged thing that explains all the rest. A bit later, Democritus said the same thing about atoms. Heidegger and his postmodern admirers call this process “ontotheology,” since most philosophies claim to be a neutral study of being, but raise some particular being (such as water) to the godlike status of explaining all the rest.

is the discipline that classifies and explains beings in general and subordinates them to a supreme being.

Traditional metaphysics also tends to look for a particular entity that most fully exemplifies what it means to be. This entity is the perfect being, or God. Metaphysics thus becomes what Heidegger likes to call "onto-theology": the discipline that classifies and explains beings in general and subordinates them to a supreme being.

onto theology, n.Definitions

onto theology