1.3 ontological argument Flashcards
What type of reasoning does the ontological use?
a priori - based on logic and reasoning alone
What kind of argument is the ontological argument?
a deductive argument
Who was Anselm of Canterbury?
An 11th Century monk and philosopher
How did Anselm come up with the ontological argument?
he had a religious experience that ‘revealed’ the ‘simple argument’ to him
Where is Anselm’s ontological argument found?
in his work Proslogium
How did Anselm define God?|
a being than which nothing greater can be conceived
What is Anselm’s ontological argument?
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
What is Anselm’s aim?
to refute the ‘fool who can understand the claim that God exists BUT doesn’t believe that God exists
What does Gaunilo think about Anselm’s argument?
In On Behalf of the Fool, Gaunilo points out that Anselm’s argument seems absurd as you could define anything into existence.
What type of argument does Gaunilo use to counter Anselm?
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
What is Anselm’s response to Gaunilo?
his argument should only be applied to necessary beings
Where is Descartes’ ontological argument found?
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
What was the only thing that Descartes couldn’t doubt?
that he exists = Cogito, ergo sum
What does Descartes argue?
- 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
Descartes’ argument in premises:
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
What does Descartes say about the existence of God?
the existence of God cannot be separated from his essence
What is meant by essence?
something fundamental to what something is
What is Norman Malcolm’s ontological argument?
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
What is Alvin Plantinga’s ontological argument?
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
What type of logic does Plantinga use?
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.
What does Kant have to say about the ontological argument?
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
What does Hume say about the ontological argument?
existence could only ever be contingent and all statements about existence could be denied without contradiction
What did Russell say about the ontological argument?
- Existence should be used to indicate the instance of something in the spatio-temporal world.
