Anselms ontological argument
- Created by: reayofsunshine
- Created on: 17-02-17 13:42
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- Anselm and the Ontological Argument
- In his book 'Proslogion'
- He argued that nothing is greater or more perfect than God
- First form of the argument
- God is that nothing can be greater thought
- A real existent being would be greater than an imaginary being
- Therefore, the concept of God is surpassed by the actual, existent God
- Second form of the argument
- Impossible for God not to exist as 'God is that than which nothing greater can be thought'
- Contingent beings are inferior to beings with NECESSARY EXISTENCE (which are eternal and depend on nothing else for their existence, and of which the only example is GOD)
- 'Because God is unsurpassable in every way, God must have a necessary existence'
- Therefore, God exists necessarily
- God must exist because a necessary being cannot fail to exist
- Only contingent beings do that (fail to exist)
- Necessary existence is part of the whole deffinition of God
- made no sense to think of God as non existent because then he would not be God
- Dont need evidence to know God is real, we know he exists by considering the concept of him and working out what it means
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