Ontological Arguments - MoG

• What did Anselm begin his argument by reflecting on?

  He started by reflecting on a psalm from the bible which starts ‘Fools say in their hearts, there is no God’. He would then set out to prove them wrong.

  
• What did Anselm argue about a fool arguing about God's existence?

  Anselm put forward the idea that for to suggest that ‘There is no God’, the fool has to have an idea in his or her mind of what ‘God’ is.

  
• What did Anselm argue about God?

  That God the greatest possible being.

  
• What other argument did Anselm express about God?

  He explained how it is a part of God’s nature that God exists. In philosophical terms: A predicate of God is God’s existence.

  
• What conclusion does Anselm reach?

  God is the greatest being that can be thought of, part of being a ‘being’ or a ‘thing’ of any sort is that you must exist. So God must exist.

  
• What is one criticism of Anselm's argument?

  The most famous criticism put forward against Anselm's argument was by a Benedictine Monk called Gaunilo who argues that Anselm’s conclusion that God cannot fail to exist is unintelligible (Guanilo's island).

  
• What did Anselm argue about the context of God's existence?

  He argued that God must necessarily exist because if God only exists continuously, God would depend on something else for existence, and therefore would not be as great as a being that has to exist.

  
• What is a quote about Anselm's argument?

  "The interesting part about Anselm’s argument was that it claimed to show that the non-existence of God must be self-contradictory”

  (Van Inwagen, Metaphysics 1993)

  
• What is the analogy of Guanilo's Island?

  Anyone can think of a most perfect island that can be conceived of, this does not mean that it exists. The island analogy implies that it is absurd to say that just because you have an idea of something it must exist. This leads Gaunilo to claim either that the argument about the perfect island is a joke or that the man making the argument is a fool, or that the person believing the argument is a fool. 

  
• What is one of the main perspectives provided by Guanilo's Island?

  • As soon as something exists, you can think of something better.
  • As soon as you think of that island, you can think of ways to make it better.

  
• What is a quotation about Guanilo's island?

  "I do not seek to understand so that I may believe, but I believe in order to understand”

  
• Who did Aquinas argue against?

  Anselm

  
• What did Aquinas believe about the existence of God?

  He believed that the existence of God could be demonstrated through A Posteriori arguments, but not through reasoning alone.

  
• What did Aquinas argue that God's existence cannot be regarded as?

  He expressed how it cannot be regarded as self-evident. He also argued that if we take a statement such as ‘truth does not exist’ then we see it as a nonsensical statement, because no one can accept the truth of the ‘truth does not exist'.

  
• What did Aquinas argue that it is not impossible to do?

  He expressed how it is not impossible to have a mental concept of the non-existence of truth because it is a contradiction in terms.

  
• What is Descartes famous for?

  He discovered that he could not doubt his own existence (“I think, therefore I am”).

  
• What did Descartes believe about proving the existence of God?

  He believed that if he could prove the existence of God then this should provide the secure foundations for his belief.

  
• What conclusions did Descartes reach in his earlier meditations?

  • He claimed that God has placed in every person the idea of God.
  • Some things cannot be doubted, such as the truths of mathematics
  • Demonstrating God's existence is not about proving the idea of God is true or that it is more than an intuition

  
• What example does Descartes use in order to support his argument?

  A triangle, this being due to it having three sides and three internal angles adding up to 180 degrees. The nature of the triangle is called 'immutable’ by Descartes - Meaning incapable of change/being different.

  
• What does Descartes argue about perfection?

  He argues that perfection means that something is not lacking in any way. If you have the idea of a perfect car, it is only an idea; it is not the perfect car unless it exists in reality.

  
• Who was Hume?

  An empiricist, was opposed to the idea that we could acquire knowledge concerning what exists by the use of reason alone.

  
• What did Hume argue about God's existence?

  God existing and not existing are both valid conclusions.

  
• What did Hume claim about proving something to be A Priori?

  He claimed that in order to prove something a priori, the opposite of what you said cannot be a contradiction.

  
• What is Hume's first prong ('relations of idea')

  Determined to be true or false simply through analysis of the meanings of the terms involved. For most philosophers, this means they can be known ‘a priori’ without any further reference to experience.

  
• What is the second prong ('matters of fact') for Hume?

  These can only be determined by experience of the world. These are synthetic statements and are known to be true a posteriori and they can never be certain but are instead measured by how probable they are, or how much confidence we have in the truth.