1.3 Ontological Argument - scholars

Question 1

Aquinas claimed we do not have an agreed…

Answer 1

…definition of God

Question 2

Aquinas claimed argument reasoning to God must be derived from…

Answer 2

experience, from the effects of God’s actions in the world

Question 3

Aquinas: why we have to treat God’s existence as synthetically true (even though he did believe it analytically true)

Answer 3

as humans we do not and cannot know God’s nature - if we knew his nature we would know it includes existence, but we do not

Question 4

Heisenberg: problem of the ‘intrinsic uncertainty of the meaning of words’

Answer 4

‘definitions can be given only with the help of other concepts, and so one will finally have to rely on some concepts that are taken as they are, unanalysed an undefined’

Question 5

Heisenberg: problem with the idealisation and precise definition of concepts

Answer 5

lose the immediate connection with reality which they are supposed to represent