Existence of God - Based on Reason Flashcards
What was St Anselm’s motto about God?
Credo ut intelligam, ‘I believe so that I may understand’
- We need to believe in God before we can have any understanding of him
How does Anselm argue the existence of God in Chapter Two of Proslogian? (Quote)
“being which no greater can be conceived”
- The fool can understand this concept, the being must exist in the mind
- A being that exists as an idea and in reality is greater than that which only exists in the mind
- If God only exists in the mind then we can imagine something that is greater than God in reality
- However we cannot as this is a contradiction to the conceptual truth that God is a being which no greater can be conceived
- Therefore God Exists
What is Anselm’s analogy of the painter?
Used to explain why things that exist are greater than things that do not
- Before the painter paints, the picture is merely an idea in his mind, it exists only once he has painted it
- The fool knows the definition of God and what he is supposed to be
- The fool is therefore contradicting himself by saying he does not exist for a God that exists in reality Id far greater than one in the imagination
What did the Arab Philosopher Ibn Sina say about the law of non-contradiction
“Anyone who denies the law of non-contradiction should be beaten and burned until he admits that to be beaten is not the the same as not to be beaten and to be burned is not the same as not to be burned”
How would Anselm argue the existence of God in Chapter Three of Proslogian? (Quote)
- “it is not possible for it to be thought not to be”
- God is a necessary being, we are contingent
- If God exists in the mind but not necessarily in reality then we can imagine something greater than God - we can’t
- If God exists in the mind as an idea then he therefore exists in reality
What would be Gaunilo’s criticism to Anselm?
- Believed Anselm’s argument was wishful thinking and could allow anything to be thought into existence
- Uses example of mythical lost island, considered to be the perfect island
- It can only be described as perfect if it exists, or else ir would be a contradiction to call it perfect
- Therefore the Island and anything else thought as perfect must exist by definition
- Argues if Parallel arguments from perfection are absurd then the ontological argument is absurd
How did Anselm respond to Gaunilo?
- Says the Islands existence is contingent, dependent on sea and earth and do not have to exist
- Anselm asserts God as supremely necessary and nor dependant on anything, therefore the argument can only be correctly applied to God
How would John Hick develop Anselm’s response to Gaunilo?
- Argued a perfect Island is an undefinable thing
- If I added another grain of sand does it become imperfect?
- Perfect Island is subjective, some people who love coconuts might want them, those who don’t will not
What issue would Anselm tackle in Chapter 9 of his response and how?
- Addresses the issue of the fool being able to say ‘there is no God’ even though God cannot be thought not to be
- Verb intelligere ‘to understand’
- God is not merely to be thought of but to be understood, the fool has not understood the thought he has had
What is a weakness in his response in Chapter 9?
Even fools do not deny what is self-evident
What was St Thomas Aquinas’ criticism to Anselm on Gods existence ? (Quote)
“A proposition is self-evident because the predicate is included in the essence of the subject… the proposition that God exists is self-evident because God is his own essence”
- Aquinas believes that things are self evident in either itself or to us, we must see the self evidence to understand the self evidence
- Gods nature is strictly unknown to us
- Argues our way to God is through is effects in the world and is an indirect one
How would Descartes develop Anselm’s argument for the existence of God?
- God is by definition perfect, therefore containing the perfection of existence, so therefore an imperfect God would not exist, but God is perfect therefore he exists
- Existence is a defining predicate of the concept of God, it is necessary to the concept of God the same way a triangle having 3 sides and 3 angles is necessary to the concept of a triangle
- A square that did not have 4 sides would not be a square, therefore a God that did not exist would not be God
What was Kants first criticism to Descartes?
- There is no contradiction in the idea of rejecting a concept, even if Descartes idea of the defining predicate is right
- Half-woman and half-fish is a defining predicate to the idea of a mermaid, however you would not be contradicting yourself if you said you did not believe in mermaids
- In the same way I could accept that if God exists, he must exist however if I did not believe in him or this necessity I would not be contracting myself
What was Kants second criticism to Descartes?
- Argued that existence was not a predicate at all, hardly a defining predicate
- Saying ‘x exists’ is not adding anything to the concept of x, you are saying there is something in the real world which corresponds to the concept of x
- Kant uses a hundred real Thaler and a hundred imaginary Thaler
- Number of Thaler’s is the same in both, imaginary or real, the concept is the same ‘exists’ is not a predicate
What is the issue with the attempts to define God in the ontological argument?
- Attempting to define God in a way I define the geometric concept of a triangle
- A triangle is a concept in the human system of geometry, we can define it due to us knowing what the term means
- We do not have any conception of what the term ‘God’ means
