Ontological argument

Question 1

Who developed the Ontological argument and what was it’s initial purpose?

Answer 1

St Anselm developed the Ontological argument to reaffirm the believers faith, not to persuade atheists.

Question 2

What does the Ontological argument mean and what does it attempt to prove?

Answer 2

Ontology stems from the Greek ‘ontologia’ meaning study of being and attempts to prove God’s existence through definition.

Question 3

What type of argument is the Ontological argument and how does this effect conclusions drawn from it?

Answer 3

It is a deductive argument using a priori methods to prove it’s ideas using reasoning and logic. If you accept all premises it argues, you must accept its conclusion.

Question 4

How does Anselm describe God and why is this significant?

Answer 4

“That than which nothing greater can be conceived”, which he argues even the atheist agrees is the definition (even if they don’t agree that such a being exists).

Question 5

What premises does Anselm use to deduce that God is a necessary being by de dicto (by definition)?

Answer 5

P1=God is a perfect being.
P2= Existence is greater than not existing.
P3= If P1 and P2 are correct then existence is necessary for perfection.
Conclusion= therefore, God exists.

Question 6

How does Gaunilo’s island analogy attack Anselm’s argument?

Answer 6

Guanilo argues that Anselm’s conclusion fails via the substitution of God with another object. Just because it is possible to conceive of the most perfect Island doesn’t make it real.

Question 7

How does Anselm counter Guanillo’s criticisms?

Answer 7

Anselm describes God as being a necessary being, while islands are contingent and therefore dependent upon other things to exist.

Question 8

Why did Descartes find the Ontological argument appealing?

Answer 8

He was an enlightenment philosopher, an era in which a posterior, inductive arguments where growing unpopular.

Question 9

What are the Cartesian contributions to Ontology?

Answer 9

A supremely perfect being possesses the perfection of existence, a perfect being that is non-existence is a logical impossibility.

Question 10

How does Leibniz act to support Descartes?

Answer 10

He establishes the idea that a perfect being is a coherent notion. He argues that as perfections are non-empirical, it can not be argued that perfections are contradictory and therefore a being can be perfect in every possible way.

Question 11

Which modern developer of Ontology uses modal logic, and what is modal logic?

Answer 11

Alvin Plantinga furthered the Ontological argument using modal logic, a school of thought requiring the consideration of possibilities in order to see what is contradictory.

Question 12

What is Alvin Plantiga’s “possible world” argument?

Answer 12

If a perfect being is possible in one universe, then they must exist in all universes as “the greatest possible being must have maximal excellence in every possible world.”

Question 13

Norman Malcolm differs from earlier proponents of the Ontological argument, how so?

Answer 13

He disagrees with the idea that existence alone is a perfection.

Question 14

How does Norman Malcolm develop Ontology?

Answer 14

Malcolm argues God existence through the idea that he has “necessary existence.” As God is non-contingent by very definition, the fact we can conceptualize him shows he must exist as it then becomes contradictory that he could have never never existed at all.

Question 15

What does Hartshorne say about necessary existence?

Answer 15

He asserts that necessary existence is a first order predicate, as it a significant statement to say God is a being that exists with no possibility of him not existing.

Question 16

How does Hartshorne use necessary existence in order to assert the validity of the Ontological argument?

Answer 16

Harthorne argues that necessary existence dismisses agnostic assertions of God’s existence. This means the the theist only has to prove the existence of God is possible before their conclusion logically have to be accepted.

Question 17

What does contingent mean?

Answer 17

Dependent for existence on something else.

Question 18

What does non-contingent mean?

Answer 18

Can exist independently, regardless of other things or beings.

Question 19

Why does Aquinas reject Ontology as an effect argument for the existence of God?

Answer 19

God is transcendent, we can not argue his existence through deduction. “Only God can completely know His own essence, so only He can understand the argument” - ‘Summa Theologica’.

Question 20

Why does Aquinas accuse Anselm of making a “transitional error”?

Answer 20

He believes it is wrong to move from a definition of God to his existence.

Question 21

“God is an object of pure thought”, who and why?

Answer 21

Kant, arguing against the idea that existence is a predicate, describing anything meaningful about the subject.

Question 22

Gottlob Frege describes two orders of predicates in his critiques of the ontological argument. What are they?

Answer 22

First order tells us something about the nature of the subject. E.g. Rhinos are big.
Second order tells us something conceptual about the subject. E.g. there are few Rhinos.

Question 23

What does Gottlob Freg say about God and existence.

Answer 23

Existence is a second order predicate.

Question 24

Who describes the Ontological argument as infantile and why?

Answer 24

Richard Dawkins dismisses the Ontological argument as it asserts its conclusion without the use of ‘a single piece of data from the real world’.

Question 25

Who agrees with Dawkins’ rejection of the idea that the Ontological argument successfully proves the existence of God.

Answer 25

Realists, such as Logical positivists and Falsification, due to its lack of empiricism.