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The Ontological argument Flashcards

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4210798212Ontological argument is...An a priori argument (Made by reasoning not experience)0
4210799667Anselm's Ontological argument- There is nothing greater than God and God is ultimately perfect - It is possible to conceive a greater being that exists in both the mind and reality so if God is that which nothing can be greater can be conceived then he must exist in reality as well as mind. - It is impossible to conceive of God not existing as he is a necessary being (he must exist) - If God were a contingent being (depends on something else for existence and is not necessary) he would not be the greatest as we could imagine him not existing. If there is nothing greater than God that can be conceived then he must be necessary and therefore must exist1
4210865839Contingent beingDepends on something else for existence and is not necessary2
4210876432Gaunilo's challengeUsed an example of an island - just because he can imagine no island greater and more perfect does not mean it exists and existence is part of the perfection, meaning that an old island would be better than the imaginary one3
4210884808Anselm's response to Gaunilo's challengeNot arguing about contingent things such as islands as they have no intrinsic maximum - you can always think of a better island. God is not temporal or contingent and so his existence is necessary unlike an island4
4210891950Descartes' Ontological argumentGod possesses all perfections, existence is a perfection. Everything has predicates (property of something) that they must meet to make it true. e.g a triangle must have three sides, this is an analytic statement. Existence is a predicate of God.5
4210987951Kant's objections against DescartesExistence is not a predicate - to say something exists adds no extra information. (e.g. adding it exists to the end of dog does nothing) Existence is part of the concept of God - it is analytic (true in itself) but does not prove that God exists. God, like anything else is synthetic (has to be tested by experience)6
4211007012Evaluation of the Ontological arguments and the challenges- Aquinas rejected Anselm's argument as he said God's existent is not self-evident - Aquinas said humans cannot understand God's nature - Kant argued that existence is not a predicate, but Malcolm argued that necessary existence could be a predicate - A definition does not make something exist. e.g. a unicorn7

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