Ontological Argument

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  • Ontological Argument
    • Anselm's First Form
      • God is the greatest being that can be conceived.
        • If God exists only in the mind, then something greater could exist, both in the mind and real life.
          • Therefore God exists.
    • Anselm's Second Form
      • God is the greatest possible being.
        • It is better to be necessary than contingent.
          • Therefore God exists.
    • Gaunilo's Criticism
      • 'On Behalf of the Fool' A fool can say something, that doesn't make it real.
      • The Perfect Island
        • I can imagine a perfect island, of which nothing greater can be conceived. This does not make it real though.
      • You can't define something into existence.
    • Descartes
      • God is perfection and contains all other perfections.
        • Existence is a perfection.
          • Therefore God is not separate from existence and he exists.
      • The triangle and it's three angles are not separate.
        • Therefore God is not separate from existence and he exists.
    • Malcolm
      • God is either necessary or impossible.
        • It goes against the definition of God for him to be impossible.
          • Therefore God exists and is necessary.
    • Plantinga
      • There an infinite amount of worlds. In one of these worlds exists the greatest being.
        • The greatest being is omnipresent, omniscient and omnipotent.
        • The greatest being exists in all worlds and is God.
          • Therefore God exists.
          • The greatest being is omnipresent, omniscient and omnipotent.
    • Kant
      • Existence and God may co-exist but that does not make them both real.
        • Descartes, "It would be self-contridictory to posit a triangle and yet reject it's three angles, but there is not a contradiction in rejecting the triangle together with it's three angles."
      • Descartes, "It would be self-contridictory to posit a triangle and yet reject it's three angles, but there is not a contradiction in rejecting the triangle together with it's three angles."
    • Hume
      • Thinking that something exists doesn't require it's existence.
    • Russell
      • The ontological argument only adds to our definition of God, it doesn't prove anything.
    • Mackie
      • It is two different things for a concept to be real and existing and for a concept to be thought up.
  • Ontological means 'concerned with being'.
    • Analytical proposition -Something that givens no new information about a topic because the descriptor is the definition.
    • A Priori, uses reason not empirical evidence.
  • Analytical proposition -Something that givens no new information about a topic because the descriptor is the definition.
  • For example, a widow is someone who's husband died.

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