ontological argument

Question 1

INTRO

Answer 1

argument that claims that gods existence can be demonstrated through reasoning - a priori deductive argument based on reason

• fails due to the inherent ambiguities of the predicate, existence, and indeed the arguable definition of the subject Himself, God

Question 2

does an absolute and universal definition of God exist?

Answer 2

Anselm - argues (in his ‘Prosologion’) that God is ‘that than which nothing greater can be conceived’

rejected by Aquinas - God is beyond understanding and so applying such logical and linguistic categories is misplaced

we cannot agree upon his true essence or definition, and even if we managed to settle for one single definition, we would not know if it was correctly defining God

Augustine - “if you claim you have grasped him, what you have grasped is not God”
subjective - ontology therefore must be illogical and ineffective

Question 3

Anselms argument

Answer 3

even “the fool” (Psalm 14) who denies God at least has a concept of God present in the mind

If God existed merely in the understanding, then we could
conceive of a greater being (one which existed in reality).

the greatest conceivable being cannot exist in the mind only, but must
exist in reality, for this must be better than to exist in the mind alone.

by virtue of the way he defines God, Anselm believes His existence to be imperative

Question 4

gaunilos criticism

Answer 4

Gaunilo’s attack - parody of Anselm’s argument. He gave an Ontological Argument for the existence of an island than which nothing greater can be conceived

It is possible to conceive of the most perfect lost island
It is greater to exist in reality than to exist only in the mind
Therefore, the most perfect lost island must exist in reality.

we know that such an island cannot exist. He is suggesting that Anselm’s argument can be used to prove the existence of an endless number of perfect objects.

Question 5

anselms rebutal

Answer 5

Everything that you might want to exist on your ‘perfect’ island is contingent – it can exist or not exist. What is a beautiful palm tree will one day rot to pieces.

God is the greatest conceivable being - cannot be conceived not to exist.
Necessary beings are greater than contingent beings thus God must be necessary
God, and God alone, possesses necessary existence: God cannot not exist
necessary existence is a predicate only of God, and not of any other things.

Question 6

Descartes ontological argument

Answer 6

we are born with an understanding of what god is:
○ a supremely perfect being with perfect attributes
God is perfect, existence is a perfection, God exists

using the analogy of a triangle Descartes argues that existence cannot be separated from the essence of God
He said that existence is part of the essence of god just as 3 angles adding up to 180° is part of the essence of a triangle

Question 7

Kants criticism

Answer 7

greatest drawback - its assumption that existence is a predicate at all - an existent God appears not to add anything to our understanding of Him. therefore, existence is not a characteristic, but is in a different category.

Norman Malcolm argues that necessary existence is a distinguishing characteristic which sets god apart and therefore can be used as a predicate
however must accept that god exists necessarily to come to the conc that god exists necessarily

MERELY CIRCULAR LOGICAL WHICH CANNOT BE FALSIFIED

it merely shows that ‘If’ God exists, then he exists necessarily.