1.3 ontological argument

Question 1

What type of reasoning does the ontological use?

Answer 1

a priori - based on logic and reasoning alone

Question 2

What kind of argument is the ontological argument?

Answer 2

a deductive argument

Question 3

Who was Anselm of Canterbury?

Answer 3

An 11th Century monk and philosopher

Question 4

How did Anselm come up with the ontological argument?

Answer 4

he had a religious experience that ‘revealed’ the ‘simple argument’ to him

Question 5

Where is Anselm’s ontological argument found?

Answer 5

in his work Proslogium

Question 6

How did Anselm define God?|

Answer 6

a being than which nothing greater can be conceived

Question 7

What is Anselm’s ontological argument?

Answer 7

P1) Our understanding of God is a being than which no greater can be conceived.
P2) The idea of God exists in intellectu
P3) A being that exists both in intellectu and in re is greater than a being that exists only in the mind.
P4) If God only exists in intellectu, then we can conceive of a greater being- that which exists in re
C -> therefore, God exists

Question 8

What is Anselm’s aim?

Answer 8

to refute the ‘fool who can understand the claim that God exists BUT doesn’t believe that God exists

Question 9

What does Gaunilo think about Anselm’s argument?

Answer 9

In On Behalf of the Fool, Gaunilo points out that Anselm’s argument seems absurd as you could define anything into existence.

Question 10

What type of argument does Gaunilo use to counter Anselm?

Answer 10

He uses a reductio ad absurdum argument :
P1) We can imagine an island which is the greatest conceivable island.
P1) it is greater to exist in re than merely in intellectu
C -> therefore, the greatest conceivable island must exist in re.

Overall, Gaunilo is arguing that there needs to be some kind of empirical proof that the island and God exist

Question 11

What is Anselm’s response to Gaunilo?

Answer 11

his argument should only be applied to necessary beings

Question 12

Where is Descartes’ ontological argument found?

Answer 12

in his book Meditations
- the aim of the book was methodological scepticism = to doubt everything that he could to see what it was that he couldn’t doubt

Question 13

What was the only thing that Descartes couldn’t doubt?

Answer 13

that he exists = Cogito, ergo sum

Question 14

What does Descartes argue?

Answer 14

• There are certain things that exist in intellectu which it is possible to know the properties of, even if they cannot be ‘encountered through the senses’, it doesn’t mean that he invented them.
  SO we can know that existence is a property of God without having encountered them

Question 15

Descartes’ argument in premises:

Answer 15

P1) I exist
P2) In my mind, I have the concept of a perfect being
P3 As an imperfect being, I could not have conjured up the concept of a perfect being
P4) The concept of a perfect being must therefore have originated from the perfect being itself
P5) A perfect being must exist in order to be perfect
C -> therefore, a perfect being exists

Question 16

What does Descartes say about the existence of God?

Answer 16

the existence of God cannot be separated from his essence

Question 17

What is meant by essence?

Answer 17

something fundamental to what something is

Question 18

What is Norman Malcolm’s ontological argument?

Answer 18

P1) God is that which nothing greater than can be thought
P2) Necessary existence is a perfection
P3) If God possess all perfections, he must possess necessary existence
P4) A necessary being cannot not exist
P5) If God could exist, then he would exist necessarily
P6) It is contradictory to say that a necessary being doesn’t exist
C -> God must exist

Question 19

What is Alvin Plantinga’s ontological argument?

Answer 19

P1) There is a possible world, in all the possible worlds, in which there is an entity that is maximally great
P2) A maximally greatest being would exist in all possible worlds.
C = this maximally great being exists in this world

Question 20

What type of logic does Plantinga use?

Answer 20

modal logic = concerned with what exists in an infinite number of other possible worlds, with the aim of finding out what is contingent, necessary or possible in the world.

Question 21

What does Kant have to say about the ontological argument?

Answer 21

He rejects the argument because existence isn’t a predicate -> it doesn’t express anything about the subject
e.g. saying ‘zebras exist’ doesn’t tell us anything about zebras

Question 22

What does Hume say about the ontological argument?

Answer 22

existence could only ever be contingent and all statements about existence could be denied without contradiction

Question 23

What did Russell say about the ontological argument?

Answer 23

• Existence should be used to indicate the instance of something in the spatio-temporal world.