The Ontological Argument

Anselm
1. reductio ad absurdum
  1. "God cannot be thought NOT to exist." - it would be absurd.
2. Painter analogy
3. For God to be the greatest thought, He must exist.
4. God exists at least in the mind (de dicto) whether a person believes or not)
  1. If God only exists in the mind then he is NOT the greatest possible being conceived of
    1. God must exist in reality as well as in the mind in order to be logically consistent with our definition of God as the greatest possible being.
5. His reply to Gaunilo was that he was not arguing about temporal, contingent things (like an Island)
  1. Islands have no 'intrinsic maximum'. God is not in the same category, he is neither contingent or temporal
    1. As such God's existence is necessary
Descartes
1. Defined God as a 'supremely perfect being'
  1. Because he is perfect, he possesses all perfections
    1. The perfect state includes existence. Existence is a predicate of a perfect being.
      1. Therefore God exists
2. Only God has absolute perfection- there can't be 2 absolutes
3. There are some things that an object has to have for it to be an object
  1. e.g. a bachelor is unmarried
    1. He argued that God must exist in the same way a triangle must have 3 sides (a predicate)
4. Only an absolutely perfect being can have necessary existence
5. His argument can't apply to objects affected by space and time (such as Gaunilo's Island)
  1. It can only be applied to something which is perfect
Kant
1. Analytic Statements
  1. are true or false in terms of the words used
    1. e.g. bicycles have 2 wheels
2. Synthetic Statements
  1. are true or false because of evidence
    1. e.g. Sam's bike is red
3. Existence is not a predicate.
  1. describing someone as 'tall' adds to our understanding of the person
    1. describing someone as 'existing' does not
4. adding reality to a concept does not make it any better
  1. e.g. imagining real money doesn't make your life better
5. If you accept that there is a God, it is logical to accept also that His existence is necessary
  1. BUT you do NOT have to accept that there is a God
Others
1. Norman Malcolm
  1. God's existence is either impossible, or necessary
    1. since necessary existence can't be affected by anything beyond itself, God can't be 'made' to come into existence
  2. If God does NOT exist; He can't be brought into existence, therefore his existence is Impossible
  3. If God DOES exist; He can't have been brought into existence, nor can he cease to exist
2. Garth Moore
  1. compares the existence of God with the existence of the equator
    1. There isn't a line drawn round the world but everyone knows the equator exists - God's reality is the same for believers, they don't need to see him to believe he is real
3. Platinga
  1. A maximally great being must exist in every possible world, so, God must exist here.
  2. There are many possible worlds, in which there exists a being with maximal greatness
Russell
1. existence can not be a predicate, if it was then it would prove Santa Clause is real
2. Argued Anselm's use of notion of necessary existence represented a syllogism
  1. syllogism is the interference of one proposition from 2 premises: e.g. Men exists- Santa Clause is a man- therefore Santa must exist
3. Existence is not a property of things
  1. It is rather, a numeral concept
Hume
1. a decription of a thing can't contain every possible detail, but we must go beyond the description itself to determine whether or not that thing exists
2. A thing can't be 'defined into existence'
  1. No matter how perfect it is.
3. All the ontological argument does is place God's existence in philosophically rational term IF He did exist
Gaunilo
1. If I imagine the most perfect island - does it make it exist, just because It is perfect?

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The Ontological Argument

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