The Ontological Argument

• Anselm's argument is:

  • A priori
  • Deductive
  • Analytic statements
  • subject and predicate
  • Necessary truths
  • Necessary things
• A priori is an argument relying on logic, not obersevation or sense experience
• Deductive means that the argument is aiming to give absolute proof. If the premises are true, then the conclusion must be true.
• Analytic statements are based on logic and true by definition
• Subject and predicate are features are complete sentences: the subject refers to who/what the subject is about and the predicate gives information about the subject
• Necessary truths are statements that could not possibly be false
• Necessary things are things that cannot possibly fail to exist
• Anselm's argument falls into two parts: Proslogism 1 and Prologism 3
• Proslogism 2

  • God is that that which no greater can be concieved
  • Anselm showed that even the fool can understand the concept of God
  • There is a difference between having a concept in the mind and having it exist in reality
  • If God only existed in the mind, then a greater thing can be conceived
  • So God cannot only exist in the mind
  • Therefore God exists in both the mind and reality.
• ''The fool says in his heart ''there is no God'' Psalm 14:1
• Gaunilo 'on behalf of the fool'

  • follows the same structure as Anselm's substituting the lost island for God
  • The lost island is that than which nothing greater can be concieved
  • It is greater to exist in reality than only the mind
  • If it exists only in the mind, then a greater thing can be concieved
  • So the lost island exists both in the mind and reality
• Proslogium and the responsio

  Anselm points to the distinction between necessity and contingency:

  • A necessary being would be a being whose non-existence would be contradictory
  • A contingent being is something that may or may not exist, being dependent on something else for its existence
• It is greater to be a necessary being than at contingent one

  • If God is a contingent being then something greater can be imagined
  • Therefore God is a necessary being
• Anselm pointed to the key difference between an island and God. Islands are contingent and God is not
• Kant believes that statements about existence must be:

  • Synthetic, not analytic
  • proved empirically through sense experience
• Kant says that Existence is not a predicate

  • A real predicate is something that gives information about a subject
  • saying 'the cat sat on the mat' gives information about the cat
  • Going on to say that the cat exists gives no further information about the cat
• Synthetic statements are statements that could be true or false. Their truth or falsity is determined by sense experience.
• Kant says that something cannot be defined into existence

  • Kant accepted that necessary existence belongs to the concept of God
  • But this does not mean that God actually exists
  • The fact that something could exist does not mean it actually does