Reason Flashcards
1
Q
What are ontological arguments?
A
arguments about the existence of God based on the definition or qualities of who God is
2
Q
St Anselm’s Proslogion
What is chapter two’s argument?
A
- God is the most perfect being
- uses the analogy of a painter - you can imagine painting but unless you paint it you are not a painter - the painting is only valuable if it is real
3
Q
St Anselm’s Proslogion
What is chapter three’s argument?
A
- God is a necessary being - God must exist because he cannot not exist
- everthing that we come to think of goes into one of four categories:
1. possible to be
2. possible not to be
3. not possible to be
4. not possible not to be - God is the greatest concievable
- you cannot concieve of God not existing
4
Q
What is Gaunilo’s ‘perfect lost island’?
A
- instead of God he asks us to imagine a perfect lost island, one that is completely perfect in every way
- the island must posses the quality of existence, because as Anselm argued his makes something greater than something existing only in thought
- however we know it doesn’t exist as we cannot think something into existence like Anselm tries to do
- God connot be thought into existence so Anselms argument does not prove that God exists
5
Q
How did Anselm respond to Gaunilo’s perfect lost island criticism?
A
- God is not contingent on the existence of anything else and therefore Anselm’s argument is only applicable to God
- the concept of an island itself is not perfect or greatest whereas the concept of God itself is
6
Q
What does Anselm say God is?
A
‘God is the greatest conceivable being’
7
Q
What does Descartes say God is?
A
‘God is a supremely perfect being’
8
Q
What are Kant’s two arguments?
A
- existence is not a predicate - predicates add to our understanding of what something is or what is doing
- accepting the definition of God as being either supremely perfect or greatest being does not mean God actually has to exist
9
Q
What does Descartes say existence is?
A
a defining predicate
