The Ontological Argument
- Created by: joduffy
- Created on: 14-05-16 15:58
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- The Ontological Argument
- St. Anselm
- Believed Gods existence was self evident
- When he formulated his argument, he already accepted that God exists
- Written in response to the opening of psalm 14 which begins 'The fool says to himself 'there is no God!'
- Four parts to his argument
- 1) God is the Greatest Conceivable Being
- True even if you don't believe in God
- We can all see that God is the greatest, higher power that anyone can think of
- If you think of something greater, then that automaticallybecomes God
- 2) God could exist in reality or just in the mind
- In reality = In Re
- In the mind = In intellectu
- We have no proof that God exists in reality so it is possible he doesn't exist
- 3) Anything thing that exists in reality is greater than something which exists in the mind
- Because it is authentic to our lives and the world we live in
- 4) Therefore, God must exist in our thoughts and in reality because he is the greatest conceivable being
- If God did not exist in reality, then simple objects such as a pen would be greater than God - Absurd.
- A predicate of God is God's existence
- 1) God is the Greatest Conceivable Being
- Believed Gods existence was self evident
- A priori
- Not based on experience
- Deductive
- Reasons from statements to reach a logical conclusion
- Analytical
- Trying to show that it is a logical conclusion that God exists
- Descartes
- Triangle
- Existence belongs analytically to God in the same way that three angles are analytically predicated to a triangle
- Perfect Being
- 1) I exist and my mind I have the concept of a perfect being
- 2) As an imperfect being i could not have invented the concept of a perfect being
- 3) This concept must have come from a perfect being
- 4) A perfect being must exist in order to be perfect
- Mountains and Valleys
- A valley is a necessary predicate of a mountain
- Triangle
- Norman Malcom
- Argues in support of necessary existence
- If God could exist, he does exist since he cannot not exist
- Gods existence is either necessary or impossible
- Cannot posses contingent existence
- God must have necessary existence
- Therefore God exists.
- God must have necessary existence
- Cannot posses contingent existence
- Argues in support of necessary existence
- St. Anselm
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