theme 1F challenges to the ontological argument

Question 1

intro - challenges to the ontological argument

Answer 1

• the ontological argument was first created Anselm and was developed by Descartes and Malcolm
• it is a deductive, a priori argument, based on logic and reason, and reaches the conclusion that God necessarily exists

Question 2

P1 Guanilo

Answer 2

• a contemporary of Anselm
• wrote ‘on behalf of the fool’
• he used an argument structure known as reduction ad absurdum (he seeks to show Anselm’s argument as absurd)
• he criticised Anselm’s argument that we can argue the existence of God through the definition of God, instead he suggested that we could apply this argument to the most perfect island
• he argues that just because we can conceive a perfect island, it doesn’t mean it exists in reality

Question 3

P2 Anselm’s response to Guanilo

Answer 3

• he responded by arguing that God is unique, only God has necessary existence
• Guanilo’s island is contingent, it therefore possesses no intrinsic maximum (you can always add to it to make it more perfect)
• the same cannot be said for God

Question 4

P3 Kant

Answer 4

• criticised Descarte’s form of the argument who argued that God possesses all perfection including existence
• Kant argues that it is inaccurate to describe existence as perfection, perfections are attributes which are predicates
• kant argues that existence cannot be a predicate because it does not describe anything about the nature of an object, all of the other attributes of God such as omnipotence are predicate which describe God’s nature
• to say that God exists does not tell us anything about God‘s nature
• he used the example of 100 thalers, what difference is there in our understanding of thalers by adding ‘it exists’ to the list of other predicates (eg round, silver), saying it exists changes nothing in our understanding therefore existence is not a predicate
• existence belongs analytically to God, it doesn’t mean that he actually exists, for example we can describe a unicorn, but it doesn’t mean they exist

Question 5

the challenges to the ontological argument are effective

Answer 5

• Guanilo used reduction ad absurdum and use the perfect Ireland example to show that just because we can defer something does not mean it’s exists, this challenge is the basis of Anselm’s argument
• Descartes argues that God possesses all perfections and that existence is a predicate of God, Kant reject this idea on the grounds that predicates tell us something about the nature of a thing, he argues that existence does not tell us about the nature of any reality or anything new about God
• Kant succeed in showing that existence cannot be added to a definition

Question 6

the challenges to the ontological argument are not effective

Answer 6

• Guanilo does not take into account that Anselm’s claim was directed at God and God only, only God has necessary existence
• a perfect island can always be improved, it has no intrinsic maximum, an island is contingent, only God is necessary
• Kant’s criticism does not work when we apply it to proslogion 2, that’s something which exists in the mind only is not as good as something which exists also in reality