The ontological argument

• What is the ontological argument?

  Existence of God based on logic
• Is the ontological argument analytic or synthetic?

  Analytic
• What is an analytic statement?


  True by definition
• Is the ontological argument a priori or a posteriori?

  A priori
• What is an a priori argument?

  An argument based on reason
• Who came up with the ontological argument?

  Anslem
• What is Anslem’s ontological argument?

  God is the greatest thing ever conceived of. This means he must exist. This is because existence makes something better than if it were imaginary. So if God didn’t exist, he wouldn’t be the greatest thing we could imagine, so there must be something greater than him
• Who criticised Anslem?

  Gaunilo
• What was Gaunilo’s analogy?


  If we imagine a lost island that is the greatest lost island to ever exist, by Anselm’s definition, the island must exist, or it wouldn’t be the greatest island
• How does Anselm respond to Gaunilo’s criticism?


  You can always improve an island, but God already possesses all the attributes of perfection
• What does Aquinas say?


  Believes God’s existence is self-evident, so it can’t be deduced by logic

  Everyone has different concepts of God so the argument only works for people who define God as Anselm does
• Who argues existence is a predicate of God?

  Descartes
• What is a predicate?


  Part of a sentence that tells us what the subject does or is
• What did Descartes alter the definition of God to?

  A supremely perfect being
• What is the triangle analogy?


  A predicate of a triangle is that it has 3 sides and its angles add up to 180°. Without this it could not be a triangle
• How does Descartes apply the triangle analogy to God?


  God’s existence is a predicate of God. If he didn’t exist he wouldn’t be God

  We cannot think of God without conceiving of him as existing
• What does Kant argue?


  When we are saying God is necessary we are making an analytic statement. Necessary existence is a part of our idea of God, but tells us nothing about whether he actually exists
• What does Kant say about existence as a predicate?


  It is not a property that a concept does or doesn’t have. Adding existence to something doesn’t add to it

  All claims about existence are synthetic
• Who discusses the existence of Pegasus?

  Gassendi
• How does Gassendi criticise the ontological argument?


  If Pegasus is by definition the perfect horse then Pegasus must exist
• How does Descartes criticise Gassendi?


  Triangles and God are real concepts, Pegasus and the lost island are made up