Ontological arguments Flashcards
overview of ALL ontological args
- use a priori reasoning
- deductive args
- Versions of the ontological argument aim to deduce God’s existence from the definition of God. Thus, proponents of ontological arguments claim ‘God exists’ is an analytic truth.
what is Anselm’s ontological arg
- By definition, God is a being greater than which cannot be conceived
- We can coherently conceive of such a being i.e. the concept is coherent
- It is greater to exist in reality than to exist only in the mind
- Therefore, God must exist
descartes ontological arg
- I have the idea of God
- The idea of God is the idea of a supremely perfect being
- A supremely perfect being does not lack any perfection
- Existence is a perfection
- Therefore, God exists
difference between anselms and descartes onto arg
Descartes uses the concept of a perfect being rather than a being greater than which cannot be conceived.
Descartes argues this shows that ‘God does not exist’ is a self-contradiction.
probs for anselms arg
- gaunilo’s perfect island
- Hume ‘god doesn’t exist’ isn’t a contradiction
- Kant: existence is not a predicate
gaunilo’s perfect island
- The perfect island is, by definition, an island greater than which cannot be conceived
- We can coherently conceive of such an island i.e. the concept is coherent
- It is greater to exist in reality than to exist only in the mind
- Therefore, this island must exist
aim of gaunilo’s perfect island
to disprove the logic on Anselms ontological arg
HUME: ‘GOD DOES NOT EXIST’ IS NOT A CONTRADICTION
crit of ontological args
- If ontological arguments succeed, ‘God does not exist’ is a contradiction
- A contradiction cannot be coherently conceived
- But ‘God does not exist’ can be coherently conceived
- Therefore, ‘God does not exist’ is not a contradiction
- Therefore, ontological arguments do not succeed
what is a PREDICATE
a property of a thing
KANT: EXISTENCE IS NOT A PREDICATE
When someone says “God exists”, they don’t mean “there is a God and he has the property of existence”. If they did, then when someone says “God does not exist”, they’d mean, “there is a God and he has the property of non existence” – which doesn’t make sense!
Instead, what people mean when they say “God exists” is that “God exists in the world”. This cannot be argued from the definition of God and could only be proved via (a posteriori) experience. Thus the ontological argument fails to prove God’s (actual) existence.
which is the best objection to anselms arg
KANT: EXISTENCE IS NOT A PREDICATE
what is Malcolm’s ontological arg
- Either God exists or does not exist
- God cannot come into existence or go out of existence
- If God exists, God cannot cease to exist
- Therefore, if God exists, God’s existence is necessary
- Therefore, if God does not exist, God’s existence is impossible
- Therefore, God’s existence is either necessary or impossible
- God’s existence is impossible only if the concept of God is self-contradictory
- The concept of God is not self-contradictory
- Therefore, God’s existence is not impossible
- Therefore, God exists necessarily
why did Malcolm make his arg
as response to KANT
* Malcolm argues that it’s not existence that is a perfection, but the logical impossibility of necessary existence
* This (necessary existence) is a predicate, so avoids Kant’s argument that existence is not a predicate
prob of Malcolm’s arg
issue with ‘The concept of God is not self-contradictory’
could arg that the concept of god IS self-contradictory
prob of Malcolms arg
definition of necessary
we may argue that the meaning of “necessary” changes between premise 4 and the conclusion (10) and thus Malcolm’s argument is invalid. In premise 4, Malcolm is talking about necessary existence in the sense of a property that something does or does not have. By the conclusion, Malcolm is talking about necessary existence in the sense that it is a necessary truth that God exists. But this is not the same thing. We can accept that if God exists, then God has the property of necessary existence, but deny the conclusion that God exists necessarily.
