· Understanding Anselm's Ontological Argument Essay In philosophy, an ontological argument is a kind of argument that establishes the existence of some entity. In the case of Anselm, he argues in favor of God’s existence. In this paper, I will discuss relevant information necessary to understand Anselm’s reasoning · Excellent opening paragraph which brings in the idea of epistemic distance, introduced by John Hick, and hits at an attack on Anselm’s first premise, that God is that which nothing greater can be conceived. This type of argument, an ‘ontological argument’ is a priori, and deductive. Medieval Platonic Monk Anselm produced one, which tries to show that God is Estimated Reading Time: 7 mins · Anselm's Ontological Argument and Gaunilo's Response Essay This essay aims to outline the Ontological Argument, proposed by Anselm of Canterbury, to prove the existence of God (in particular the Christian God). It also discusses Gaunilo’s objection to the ontological argument with the use of the “Lost Island” analogy
Essay on The Ontological Argument for the Existence of God | Bartleby
The Ontological Argument for the Existence of God The ontological argument is an a priori argument. The ontological argument was introduced by Anselm of Canterbury in his book Proslogion. The ontological argument argues that if you understand what it means to talk about God, you will see His existence is necessarily true.
Ontological argument essay also believed that evenIf He did not exist, ontological argument essay, then you could still think of an even greater being one just like God that you said did not exist, except this one would exist.
The argument appears to say whatever you can imagine should be true in reality. Similarly, he maintained that once ontological argument essay know what a triangle is we know that it must have three sides, ontological argument essay.
Like a triangle inherently must have three sides, ontological argument essay God inherently must exist. Objections to the ontological argument were first brought up by a monk who was a contemporary of Anselm named Gaunilo. For an island that does exist would be more perfect than one that does not exist. Gaunilo said that we cannot simply define things into existence.
We cannot show an island or God exists simply by analyzing that idea. The Ontological Argument is also deductive and analytic as the premises of a deductive argument contain the conclusion that it reaches and is structured so that its conclusion is the only possible one that could be deduced from its premises. As it is analytic it is true by definition alone and therefore this argument reaches conclusions about the existence of God based on the definitions of God used in its previous premises, ontological argument essay.
The basis of the ontological argument was first proposed by Anselm and later interpreted by many other philosophers such as Ren© Descartes and Norman Malcolm; however each argument only differed because each started with a different concept of God.
The Ontological Argument has faced many critics that challenge the argument for not proving the existence of God and each critic highlights the flaws within this argument explaining that these flaws lead to impossible conclusions. Anselm has 2 main arguments, his first defining god as that than which no greater can be conceive. If a being only exists in our mind then a greater being that exists in both our mind and reality can be conceived, therefore the being that than which no greater can ontological argument essay conceived must exist and Anselm concludes that this being is God.
Anselm argues that it is better to be a necessary being than a contingent being, ontological argument essay, a being that depends on other things for its existence i.
He explains that God must be a necessary being because if God exists as a contingent being we could imagine greater, ontological argument essay, therefore God would not ontological argument essay that than which no ontological argument essay can be conceived. A being which cannot be conceived not to exist must be greater than one that can be conceived not to exist.
Reductio ad absurdum is a method of reasoning used by Anselm in the Proslogion which aims to demonstrate the truth of something by reducing to absurdity the opposite of what is being proved, Anselm uses this method to reduce to absurdity the opposite of his conclusion, ontological argument essay, this being that God does not exist. He aims to show this is absurd by means of an argument which shows that the existence of God is logically necessary, and he cannot not exist.
Descartes puts forward the first premise that God is a supremely perfect being and has all perfections, his second premise is then existence is perfection and finally he concludes that God is a supremely perfect being and therefore must exist.
This means that Descartes believes God to be a supremely perfect being holding all the perfections and explains if the notion of God did not include existence it would not be supremely perfect as it would be lacking a perfection and therefore he argues that this would be unintelligible and according to his nature God must exist. Descartes argues that Gods existence can be deduced from his nature, as can geometric ideas can be deduced from shapes and he uses the example of a triangle to support this.
The example of the triangle is to show that Descartes believes you cannot deny the existence of God any more than you can the angles of a triangle equalling two right angles as it is an analytic statement. A statement is analytically true if the clauses or predicates within the statement say something necessarily true of all instances of the subject and Descartes maintained existence belonged analytically to God as three angles were analytically predicated of a triangle, ontological argument essay.
The Ontological argument also faces many criticisms by different philosophers for not proving the existence of God. Anselm then dismissed any criticisms that did not relate to a necessary existence. Gaunilo went on to further criticize Anselms argument by putting forward the concept that the notion of God cannot be conceived, he goes onto explain that atheists would not accept that God can be fully understood or grasped and therefore humans cannot fully conceive God, ontological argument essay.
Thomas Aquinas also had this criticism suggesting that people do not know the nature of God and therefore cannot conceive, Aquinas adds the ontological argument would only be useful to someone who understands the essence of God and he does not believe any human is capable of such great understanding.
He explains that existing is no perfection, like Descartes ontological argument essay previously stated, because it cannot be listed in a description of anything and explains it ontological argument essay be a real predicate because existence does not add to the essence of a being, ontological argument essay. He argues that for the statement to be analytical like the argument takes it to be it can only be true because of the meaning given to the words, however if the statement is synthetic the argument would not work because the existence of God is not contained in the definition of God.
Hume argued existence could only ever be contingent and all statements ontological argument essay existence could be denied easily without contradiction. He also criticized the argument stating that humans have no clear experience of Gods existence and therefore cannot conclude Gods existence through conceiving. Atheists looking at this argument would struggle to understand how this proves Gods existence because a lot of Anselm and Descartes argument relies on the ontological argument essay that God exists, and an atheist would not have this believe.
The ontological argument is also an A priori argument using no evidence for concrete support and therefore relying on logic alone, ontological argument essay contributes to the difficulty of atheists understand how it could be true because they do not have the assumption about a God.
The argument proposes the existence is entailed in the concept of God but many people argue that conceiving God is not possible and therefore his existence to cannot be possible. I do not believe the Ontological argument provides the information for an atheist to understand or believe that God exists.
Overall the Ontological Argument for the existence of God is both supported and criticised by many philosophers. Many people believe this shows that God is a supremely perfect being and must exist whilst others will fail to understand how God can be conceived by humans because ontological argument essay cannot comprehend a being like God and how this would evidently lead to his existence.
I therefore believe that the criticisms overpower the arguments explained in the Ontological Argument for the existence ontological argument essay God, ontological argument essay. The ontological argument for the existence of God. com, Oct 30, Accessed May 19, comOct We will send an essay sample to you in 2 Hours.
If you need help faster you can always use our custom writing service. The Ontological Argument for the Existence of God. Did you like this example? Having doubts about how to write your paper correctly? Get started. Leave your email and we will send a ontological argument essay to you. Email Get sample, ontological argument essay.
Thank you! Get help with my paper. Sorry, but copying text is forbidden on this website. You can leave an email and we will send it to you, ontological argument essay.
Didn't find the paper that you were looking for? What is your topic? Number of pages. Deadline 0 days left. Any subject. Pay if satisfied.
Anselm \u0026 the Argument for God: Crash Course Philosophy #9
, time: 9:13The ontological argument for the existence of God - Free Essay Example | blogger.com
· Understanding Anselm's Ontological Argument Essay In philosophy, an ontological argument is a kind of argument that establishes the existence of some entity. In the case of Anselm, he argues in favor of God’s existence. In this paper, I will discuss relevant information necessary to understand Anselm’s reasoning · The Ontological Argument for the Existence of God The ontological argument is an a priori argument. The arguments attempt to prove God’s existence from the meaning of the word God. The ontological argument was introduced by Anselm of Canterbury in his book Proslogion/5(39) · Anselm's Ontological Argument and Gaunilo's Response Essay This essay aims to outline the Ontological Argument, proposed by Anselm of Canterbury, to prove the existence of God (in particular the Christian God). It also discusses Gaunilo’s objection to the ontological argument with the use of the “Lost Island” analogy
No comments:
Post a Comment