Crticisms of the Ontological Argument
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?- Created by: Ellie Charlish
- Created on: 05-02-16 10:58
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- Criticisms of the Ontological Argument
- Kant's 1st criticism
- Existence isn't a predicate.
- By saying it exists doesn't add any value to an object.
- saying something "simply" exists doesn't add anything to the definition of something
- For example, by saying someone is "small" it adds to our understanding of them but by saying they exist doesn't
- By saying it exists doesn't add any value to an object.
- Existence isn't a predicate.
- Gaunilo's criticism of the first form
- Used the analogy of the perfect island in his book 'On behalf of the fool'
- Argued that if you can imagine the most perfect island, then since it is perfect and existence is a part of its perfection then it must exist
- Otherwise, the grottiest island would be better than the imaginary perfect island because it actually infact, exists
- Kant's 2nd criticism
- Used an analogy of coins
- Pointed out that existing in reality doesn't add anything to the idea that exists in imagination
- You do not add anything to the definition of coins by saying they are real, not imaginary
- An imaginary pile of a hundred gold coins will have the same number in it as a real pile
- Because the 'existence' of real money adds nothing to the number of the coins he said "existence is not a predicate"
- Adding 'and exists' onto the end of a word 'money' or 'dog' or 'car' doesn't change its defintion
- Because the 'existence' of real money adds nothing to the number of the coins he said "existence is not a predicate"
- An imaginary pile of a hundred gold coins will have the same number in it as a real pile
- So if you can't accept existence as a predicate when talking of coins, why should we make a special case when talking of God?
- Bertrand Russel
- He says: "Existence isn't a predicate as if it were, we could construct this argument"
- Men exist, Santa is a man, therefore Santa exists
- Therefore; existence isn't a property of things.
- It is a rather numerical concept: comparing cows and unicorns brings you to the point that there are many cows but no unicorns
- Existence is not a quality or attribute that unicorns lack
- It is a rather numerical concept: comparing cows and unicorns brings you to the point that there are many cows but no unicorns
- Therefore; existence isn't a property of things.
- Men exist, Santa is a man, therefore Santa exists
- He says: "Existence isn't a predicate as if it were, we could construct this argument"
- David Hume
- Hume said in Dialogues concerning natural religion that: However much our concept of an object may contain, we must go outside of it to determine whether or not it exists.
- We cannot define something into existence - even if it has all the perfections we can imagine
- Descartes
- God is a supremely perfect being, existence is a perfection, therefore God must exist
- Uses a triangle to back his argument up. It has necessary predicates, the angles add up to 180
- This is an analytic statement, if any predicates are removed, the triangle is no longer a triangle
- Kant's 1st criticism
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