Starting point: Psalm 14:1, 'Fools say
in their hearts, "there is no god"
Anselm's first ontological argument
Something which exists in reality and in mind is
greater than something which exists as an idea in the
mind alone. Therefore God must exist in reality and
in the mind
Claims existence is a predicate of God
Anselm's second version of the argument
God's existence is necessary
The greatest possible being is what
Christians mean by God
Some suggestions that Anselm was reflecting
on, not proving, God existed necessarily
Gaunilo's response to Anselm's argument
Necessary existence is 'unintelligible'
You cannot define the idea into
existence
Guanilo's perfect island
Whilst the perfect island can be
conceived of, that doesn't mean it
exists; the same reasoning applies
to Anselm's onto arg
Anselm's possible reply to Guanilo:
G's argument is different, because the
island, whilst being the greatest possible
island, doesn't have to exist; its
existence is contingent
Plantinga argued that God is maximally
great in A's thought; therefore the greatest
possible being and the greatest possible
island are not comparable
Thomas Aquina
Rejected Anselm's argument as God's existence is not self-evident, human beings are not in a postition to understand God's nature
Descartes
Claimed there's idea of God in everyone; like a stamp/trademark
Some things can't be doubted, e.g. maths or God's existence
Demonstrating God's existence is about
showing there's no reason to doubt that God
exists
Triangles & Descartes' ontological argument
God and triangles have 'immutable' nature/essence
Part of God's essence is existence
Further Objections to the ontological argument
Kant argues that existence is not a 'predicate'
The part of a sentence/ cause containing a verb & stating something about the subject
Replies to Kant:
Charles Hartshorne- there's a big
difference between an idea of God
and God existing in reality as well
Norman Malcolm suggested that
necessary existence could be a predicate
of God
Pierre Gassendi argued that it's only relevant to
discuss the perfection of something if it exists