Ontological

• Basic intro

  • a priori argument - known to be true independently of experience
  • attempts to prove God's existence through the meaning of the word 'God'
  • defines God as 'that than which nothing greater can be conceived'
  • deductive argument - conclusion follows the premises - if the premises are true then the conclusion must follow
  • analytic - the truth is determined completely by the meanings of words
• Support

  • St Anselm
  • Descartes
  • Norman Malcolm
• St Anselm

  • God as 'that than which nothing greater can be conceived'
  • God exists in the mind and reality as well
  • such a being must exist in reality because existence in reality is greater than that which exists only in the mind
• Anselm First Form- a formal deductive argument

  Premise

  1. God is the greatest possible being
  2. If God exists in the mind alone, then a greater being can be imagined to exist both in mind and in reality
  3. This would then be greater than God
  4. Thus God cannot exist only as an idea in the mind
  5. Concl. God exists both in the mind and in reality
• Anselm Second form

  • God is the greatest possible being
  • It is greater to be a 'necessary' being than a contingent being
  • If God exists only as a contingent being, then a greater non-contingent being could be imagined
  • This being would then be greater than God
  • To be the greatest, therefore, God must be non- contingent
  • God is also a 'necessary' being since no other being could have created him and he can not be made to cease to exist
• Descartes

  • argues that it was possible to determine what the essential nature of something was independently of knowing whether it existed
  • As he could conceive his own existence, he could also conceive the existence of a perfect being
• Norman Malcolm

  • developed Anselm's second form
  • rejected first form as it implied that existence was a property and Malcolm didn't agree
  • defines God as 'an unlimited being' - necessary existence as it cannot depend on anything
• Supporting arguments

  • all seek to prove existence of God
  • some are deductive
  • others are analytical
  • all are a priori
• Challenge Arguments

  • Guanilo
  • Kant
• Guanilo vs Anselm

  • replacing the word 'God' with 'the greatest conceivable island
  • leads to a false conclusion
  • I can think of an amazing island with no greater
  • such an island must possess all greatness
  • it is greater to exist in reality than just the mind
  • therefore the lost island must exist in reality
• Replies to Guanilo's criticism

  • anselm is talking about God which can have an intrinsic maximum
  • necessary existence is part of the concept of God
  • greatest conceivable island is part of this concept
• Kant

  • attacked Descartes form + Anselms
  • 'existence is not a real predicate'
  • existence is the property of a concept not of an object
  • God exists ( concept of god) ( existence is not a property)
  • concerns the rejection of both subject and predicate
• Replies to Kants criticism

  • necessary existence is a property of an inability to be generated or made corrupt
• Deductive reasoning

  + God is 'that than which nothing greater can be conceived'

  • if you accept this definition of God and the fact he has necessary existence then this created deductive proof
  • you must then accept that analytically he exists
• Deductive reasoning weakness

  • - according to Tyler, deductive proof can be weak because it 'leads to apparently logically necessary conclusions' and 'it depends on how we accept the premises are analytically true
  • you have to accept all parts of the argument for it to be successful as deductive proof
• Definition of god

  + 'whatever one believes about God, it seems reasonable to say nothing can be thought to be greater than God'

  • - Cole - no clear meaning of God
  • - Argues that some people feel that Anselms definition of God is wrong
  • - 'greatest or most perfect' - only tells us what God would be like if he existed but not a fact
• Guanilo

  • you cant define things into existence - just because you can imagine something, its not automatically real and possible
  • + anselm argues that islands are contingent and do not have necessary existence as a quality whereas God does