descartes onto

Question 1

Descartes ontological argument

Answer 1

Descartes attempts global scepticism to build up his knowledge from scratch based only on indubitable truths.

The idea of a triangle can’t be separate from the idea of a three-sided shape because a triangle is three sided by definition.

Similarly, Descartes idea of God can’t be separate from the idea of a supremely perfect being because God is supremely perfect by definition.

Mountain valley
Triangle angles = 180
God existing
is inseparable from the idea of

Question 2

Descartes onto argument

Answer 2

P1 I have an idea of god a supremely perfect being
P2 a supremely perfect being must have all perfections
P3 existence is a perfection
conc therefore God must exist

Question 3

explanation of why it works

Answer 3

Descartes sees existence as a perfect in the same way that omniscience and omnipotence are perfections. Descartes suggests that it would be a contradiction to think of a supremely perfect being as lacking a perfection such as existence therefore God must exist.

Question 4

Kant’s first criticism- manic unicorn

Kant argues that even if we agree that if God exist, he has the property of perfection that doesn’t prove that God does indeed exist.

Answer 4

Descartes claims that existence is a part of the meaning of ‘god’
P1 is true by definition or analytic
Kant believes that it is possible to accept a proposition as true by definition and yet deny that there is anything in the word to which the subject refers.

The subject isn’t affected if you take away or change any of these predicates- Having a horn is an essential predicate an inseparable feature of being a unicorn suffering from manic depression isn’t.

unicorns are horned horses. True by definition of unicorn doesn’t follow then this that there are any unicorns, we can deny that there is any horned horse in the world.

He can’t move from the realm of definitions and the concept of reality in the manner that ontological arguments attempt, our concept is very different to what exist in the real world.
God exist is true by definition but only tells us the definition of the word god and nothing about the existence of God.

Question 5

Kant’s second criticism- paper

Kant argues that existence is not a predicate (property) of something. Instead, existence is a special kind of attribute which a thing needs in order to have any property at all. Predicates describes features of objects or people, but existence does not describe any feature at all.

Answer 5

Claims that existence can be a part of our definition of God- existence can’t be a property of God, because it is not a property at all. Existence is obviously not a real predicate.

Question 6

Imagine a piece of paper
Then the piece of paper that I am imagining adding these predicates
Splattered with chips grease and batter
Eye catching green lime green paper
Has the words congrats you’ve won a trip of a lifetime
Scrunched up in a gutter
Exists

Answer 6

Predicates should enrich the original idea of paper- concept by giving it new properties but paper existing? does this make any real differences to the idea? Kant thinks not. Lime green predicate is describing the thing, so it adds descriptive property in it and enriches the concept to it. Existence doesn’t do this, hence can’t be a genuine predicate since the predicate exist doesn’t describe the subject it is not a genuine predicate.