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Ontological argument
Ontological argument
The ontological argument essay
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St Anselm’s argument was from a theistic stance, he had produced the Ontological Argument in a time period where the existence of God was a given. It was very rare to find atheists, therefore it may seem that the Ontological argument was used to convert atheists, it was a response to Psalms 14 and 15 which begins as “The Fool says to himself “there is no God”. However, the argument is actually from a “faith seeking understanding” view and only wants to get closer to understanding the nature of God. The Ontological argument was presented in his work “Proslogion” in two parts. It should be noted that this entire argument was formed from reason which is the process of forming conclusions and judgements through logic. As a result, a prior (first hand) knowledge is used. The first part is focused on proving God’s existence. Anselm began with his definition of God. That God is “that then which nothing greater can be conceived” (Id quo nihil mauis potest), meaning that it is impossible for there to be a more perfect being. This leads to the first two premises. Firstly, “God is that then which nothing greater can be conceived” and secondly, “Something that exists in reality (in re) is bound to be greater than something that exists in the imagination (in intellectu). This leads to the conclusion, that as God is “the greatest conceivable thing”…it is only logical that God exists “both in reality and thought”. Anselm’s essential claim was that existence was a “predicate of God” which means a quality of God’s nature. As God is the “greatest conceivable thing”, He must be great in possible way which includes existing. This argument can be understood more simply through the illustration of the painter that Anselm used. For instance, the painte... ... middle of paper ... ...nt “just because a person can conceive of something great; does not make it exist in reality”. His final point was that if Anselm’s argument can be used as a template to prove the existence of a non-existent perfect island which is far less great than God…then his Ontological argument is flawed. To conclude, Anselm’s ontological argument is based purely on reason. Therefore, you must already believe in the idea of God existing in order to accept this argument. This is the a priori aspect of this argument. However, as this argument uses your own logic alone, it does pose contradicting issues which Gaunilo’s critique highlighted. Nevertheless, it is remarkable that Anselm’s version of the Ontological argument was based on mind’s logic, rather than revelation as it is very difficult to construct a concept without your environment having an effect on your findings.
Anselm supported the ontological argument because he wanted to clarify that God exists. Deductive and employing priori reasoning is what defines the ontological argument. It begins a statement that is understood to be correct merely be meaning and instituting a proper conclusion for that statement. By employing deductive reasoning it permits Anselm to display what the meaning means. In this paper I will argue that Anselm’s ontological argument does depend on Anselm’s confidential faith in God.
There are often many mixed views when discussing God’s existence. In Anselm’s works “The Proslogion” and “Anselm’s Reply to Gaunilo” and Gaunilo’s work the “Reply on Behalf of the Fool”, both of their philosophies on the matter are imparted. Anselm’s logic regarding God is correct as he sustains his argument even when it confronted with criticisms and it is comprehensible.
In this paper, I will examine the ontological argument of Anselm for the existence of God. Anselm defines God as “that-than-which-nothing-greater-can-be-thought,” which means, at least for Anselm, that God must exist because he is the greatest being that can be conceived. Furthermore, he argues that all people, whether or not they believe in the existence of God, at least understand his definition, including the fool who denies that God exist. Anselm, in addition to that, describes two main differences between understanding the definition of God, and understanding God to exist.
In the ontological argument, St Anselm provides an argument that is based on logic. In order to understand his argument you must first ...
Anselm’s argument is based on the superiority of an existent God over a non-existent God. But as Kant argues, existence is more of a description of the real world, whether a thing exists in it or not, rather than the property of an object. Hence existence or non-existence should not count towards the perfection of any being, be it the greatest being. This implies that a non-existent God is equivalent to an existent God, which causes the ontological argument to fail.
Many philosophers, including Elliott Sober, have criticized Anselm for his reply to Gaunilo, as well as Gaunilo's attempt to show the Ontological Argument is not deductively valid. Gaunilo says that there must be something wrong with the argument, but he does not point out where the mistake is. It is necessary to do so because Anselm's argument does look valid. Indeed, Anselm says that the Ontological Argument is deductively valid because of the difference between God and an island. "This seems implausible, since deductive validity doesn't depend on an argument's subject matter, only on its form, and the two arguments have the same logical form" (87).
One being that he does not believe we as humans have the ability to understand such a concept, as we have no experienced it. He states “We cannot properly form the concept of a necessarily existent being because nothing in experience can price the basis for such a concept” (p. 309). Secondly, Gaunilo makes a comparison to refute Anselm’s argument. He says “We can imagine perfect things that are defined as “perfect” but in fact do not exist, such as a perfect island” (p.309). By making this comparison Gaunilo shows how easy it is to prove something’s existence based off Anselm’s logic. Using Anselm’s argument one could say that the island is “perfect”; if perfect is considered greatest, and existence is greater than non existence then the island must be real. However, the island is not real. It is merely a figment of Gaunilo’s imagination. The island only exists in concept, not reality. If the island only exists in concept, how is it that God exists in actuality using the same reasoning?
In Chapter 2 of the Proslogion, Anselm presents his famous ontological argument for the existence of God. This argument can be formally summarized into five premises. The first premise that Anselm presents is “you exist, as we believe.”(Proslogion, Ch.2) Meaning that God exist as an idea of the mind, and the human idea of God is that there is no greater being that exist. Anselm than presents his second premise that an idea that is in the mind and also exist in reality, is greater than an idea that only exist in the mind. Something that can be imagined and tangible is considered perfection. The third premise states that since God only exist in the mind, than it is capable for humans to think of something greater. However, Anselm’s
Descartes offers two arguments for the existence of God. The first, considered in Meditation Three, is known as the "Trademark Argument." The second, proposed in Meditation Five, is called the "Ontological Argument." This essay will consider the former alone.
The fervency of the faith that Christians hold in the existence of God necessarily intensifies the desire to prove His existence extrinsically. As Saint Anselm said in his Proslogion, “For I seek not to understand that I may believe, but I believe that I may understand.” Many theologians and philosophers have attempted to bridge this gap between understanding and belief, perhaps attempting to make the transition from what Socrates would call mere opinion, belief without explanation, to knowledge, belief accompanied by adequate explanation. Creationism is an example of an a posteriori attempt to prove God’s existence; however, maybe the most debated (and in some ways, most dense) argument for God’s existence is the a priori ontological proof for God’s existence, first asserted by the 11th century theologian, Saint Anse...
Anselm argues, in effect, that the existence of God is built into the very concept of God. He proceeds by a form of argument called reductio ad absurdum -- reduction to absurdity. He attempts to show that the position of the fool -- the non-believer who has said in his heart, "There is no God" -- is incoherent and leads to absurdity. (Cottingham, 1996: 246)
Anselm was one of the early Church Fathers who attempted to justify faith, not by reference to Holy Scripture, but through the use of logic and reason alone. Having been inspired by Saint Augustine’s The City of God, (413-426,) Anselm understood that to defeat Paganism, he must support his ...
Anselm’s argument for the existence of God is quite simple. He first proclaims that humans can grasp in their mind “something than which nothing greater can be thought” (Anselm 7). This “something” is an all-perfect God. Then, Anselm states that, if the all-perfect God existed only in thought, then something greater than the the all-perfect God can be conceived, namely, an all-perfect God that exists in reality. And
This essay will be examining the key arguments for the existence of God, in order to discuss the claim that “it is wrong to believe in anything without sufficient evidence”- with reference to the non-existence of God. It will be exploring both a priori and an a posteriori argument for the existence of God. It will solely be concentrating on the Theological argument, Cosmological argument and the Ontological argument, in order, to analyse their significance and contribution in vindicating the claim for the existence of God. The essay will begin by providing a clear philosophical characterisation of the God of Classical Theism, in order to accurately evaluate the arguments for his existence. The essay will explore varying interpretations and observations by scholars, in order to reach an accurate judgement on whether there is sufficient evidence provided to prove or disprove the existence of God.
Anselm uses the definition of God (the ontological argument), in which I have described above, to prove God's existence. As I mentioned, Anselm believes that God is the greatest being we can possibly think of. He does this by first trying to prove the