ARGUMENTS BASED ON REASON Flashcards
What is Anselm’s first argument?
God is greater than everything else.
It’s possible to imagine a being which is greater than everything else.
Reality is greater than imagination.
Therefore this being cannot exist only in imagination (because it’s greater than everything else). God therefore exists as existence is a feature of maximal greatness.
What is Gaunilo’s objection to Anselm’s first argument?
Gaunilo invited his readers to think of the greatest, or most perfect, conceivable island. As a matter of fact, it is likely that no such island actually exists.
His argument would then say that we aren’t thinking of the greatest conceivable island, because the greatest conceivable island would exist, as well as having all those other desirable properties. Since we can conceive of this greatest or most perfect conceivable island, then it must exist which is an absurd way of thinking.
What is Anselm’s second argument?
Anselm’s second argument follows:
Either God exists or He does not exist
If God exists, God’s existence must be necessary.
If God does not exist, then his existence is logically impossible (because He’s not the same kind of thing as a unicorn or dragon.)
God is not a logically impossible thing (like a two sided square).
Therefore, God’s existence is necessary
Therefore, God exists
What is Russell’s objection to the Ontological argument/Anselm’s second argument?
Necessary beings don’t exist. Necessary propositions do. (e.g. 2+2=4).
Why can’t the universe just be a brute fact of accident?
What was Descarte’s idea on the ontological argument?
Anselm is right!
Existence is a defining predicate of the concept of God in the same way having three sides is a defining predicate of a triangle.
What was Kant’s objection to the Ontological argument?
You can believe existence is a defining predicate of the concept of God and reject the concept of God. There is no contradiction!
Anyway - Existence is NOT a predicate
What was Aquinas’s objection against the Ontological argument?
It is bad because God’s essence is unknowable to us. We can only know him through his effects in the world.
