Preview

Evaluate Anselm's Ontological Argument Analysis

Satisfactory Essays
Open Document
Open Document
503 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Evaluate Anselm's Ontological Argument Analysis
Anselm’s ontological argument is an a priori proof of God’s existence. Anselm starts with an idea that depends on experience for their justification and then proceeds by purely logical means to the conclusion that God exists. His aim is to refute “the fool who says in his heart there is no God” (Psalms 14:1) this is showing that the ‘fool’ has important features which are; he understands the claim that God exists and he does not believe God exists. Anselm said “an atheist cannot consistently be an atheist”, they want to challenge that God does not exist but by having an understanding concept of God, then he must exist. Anselm had a clear understanding of an all knowing, all powerful and an all loving God, thus believing God exists.
The ontological argument describes God as “a being than which nothing greater can be conceived”, Anselm argued that the greatest possible being must exist otherwise he would not be the greatest possible being, although he must be the greatest possible being in every way including mind and reality. Anselm said atheists can define God even if they don’t believe in him. René Descartes said “I think therefore I am”, this means that if you can think about it you do exist, therefore if we think about God; he must exist. God must have all perfections in order to be the greatest being; existence was perfection is
…show more content…
The answer has to be ‘A God who cannot be thought of as not existing’. So that, Anselm argued in his book Proslogion, proves logically that God’s existence is necessary. “There is no doubt that there exists a being than which nothing greater can be conceived”, this is simply saying that no one can think of anything greater than God and therefore God is the greatest possible

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    Anselm put forward his ideas about the existence of God through his book, the Proslogion. He started by simply giving the word ‘God’ a definition, and then explaining that to not believe in God was absurd. The Proslogion consisted of two main parts. In Proslogion 1, Anselm explained God as being…

    • 400 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    explanation that God necessarily exists. Anselm's goal is to prove to the "fool" that God has to…

    • 413 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Anselm’s ontological argument described in part (a), was refuted in his own lifetime, by Gaunilo, who demonstrated in a reduction ad absurdum of his own, that if the logic of the argument were applied to things other than God, it led to invalid conclusions. Gaunilo didn’t identify any specific fault with the argument, but argued that something must be wrong with it, because if there wasn’t anything wrong, then we can use its logic to prove anything, which we may have no reason to believe to be true.…

    • 823 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The ontological argument rests on the premise that the universe’s existence is contingent- it depends on something else to exist. The argument is deductive, analytic and a priori, and was first formed by St. Anselm, who prayed for a short argument that would prove God to be “that than which nothing greater can be conceived”. This prayer was called the proslogion and tried to prove God by means of reductio ad absurdum, which states that the existence of God is logically necessary. The argument is based on the word “God”, a being that possesses all perfections, therefore must exist. Anselm was aware that the existence of God is denied by atheists and in response to this, he states “the fool has said in his heart there is no God”.…

    • 455 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Cartesian Dualism Flaws

    • 1061 Words
    • 5 Pages

    Descartes thinks that since we all have an innate idea of a perfect being, then that perfect being, which he calls God, has to exist, or else it would not be perfect anymore. There are two problems with this line of thought. First, do we really have an innate idea of a perfect being? Wouldn’t we need to acquire the concept of “perfect” and “being” first? It is true that we could not have directly seen or experienced a perfect being in real life, but that does not mean the idea of a perfect being has to be innate. Rather, we can form this idea merely by experiencing non-perfect beings and imagining the opposite, just like how we develop the idea of immaterial things after we have seen or experienced material things. Therefore, the idea of a perfect being is not innate, and in fact, it is possible for us never to have that idea at all. On the other hand, why must a perfect being exist? Why should existence be better, “more perfect,” than non-existence? Descartes does not give us enough evidence of the “perfectness” of existence, and thus existence cannot be guaranteed as an essential part of the perfect being’s property. Now I have shown that Descartes’ main argument for God’s existence is flawed, although I still do not rule out the possibility of God’s…

    • 1061 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Anselm is not trying to say that whatever one can think of exist because, everyone can think of something that does not exist. Neither is he trying to saying believing in something without any doubt makes it exist. Finally Anselm might believe in God, he is not trying to convince us that God exist but rather he is trying to show us that once one understands or grasp the concept of who or what God, then based on logic it follows that God has to exist. Anselm ontological argument follows that if one makes an assumption and can show things that follow from that assumption lead to contradiction, then the initial assumption is rejected and conclude the opposite…

    • 118 Words
    • 1 Page
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    For Anselm, using logic that can be deducted about God, it is clear to see that God’s existence is necessary. In the second ontological argument from Anselm, God is the greatest being possible; it is greater to exist by necessity than by contingence, it is therefore, impossible for God to not exist. In this argument, God’s existence is an analytic statement, it is impossible to prove that God exists and although Anselm believes that it does not need to be proven, there is no way of knowing that it is analytic. For example take triangles, every triangle that anyone can ever think of will have 3 sides that all add up to 180 degrees, that is simply a part of what a triangle is. Humans can however, prove this by drawing every possible triangle and testing them to see, with God’s existence that is not possible. For humans to consider his existence as an analytic statement, they would have to go faith and logic alone. In a way God’s existence could be a synthetic statement, which would mean that it would need to proven before the statement was true or not, the reason for this is because whether God exists or not does not prove his existence in reality as Anselm suggests in his argument. Kant would agree with this as he reviews Anselm’s ontological argument by saying that God’s existence is not a predicate, existence may be a part of the concept of God, but it does not proof that God exists.…

    • 442 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Anselm’s argument did lead to objections as most do. The first was that of a Monk Named Gaunilo, who argued against Anselm’s ontological Argument with the use of the concept of a perfect island. Gaunilo argued that concept of a perfect island does not prove that the existence of an island. In this case that perfection does not imply ‘existence’. Gaunilo claims that if the word God was replaced with the words perfect island, then Anselm’s ontological argument would not conclude that the perfect island exists. The fact Gaunilo was trying to bring across that a valid argument can never have true premises and a false conclusion, as the conclusion has to follow logically from the premises. Constructing a similar argument in which the conclusion is false shows that Anselm’s argument is flawed. Gaulino’s argument follows the basic form as such:…

    • 475 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    In Saint Anselm and Gaunilo’s “The Ontological Argument”, Anselm believes that God is the greatest of all conceivable things and nothing else can be ....…

    • 450 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    The first line in Anselms ontological argument is “the fool says in his heart there is no god”, from this Anselm can deduce that the fool has an understanding of what god is .The fool has to admit that god is that than which nothing greater can be conceived, as this is the definition of god and is understood by believers and non-believers. Anselm then goes on to say, it is one thing to exist in the mind alone and another to exist in the mind and reality, for example a piece of art can exist in an artist’s mind but it is not until they paint it that it exists in the mind and reality. Anselm views God as ‘that than which none greater can be conceived’. From this definition we can say that god exists in the mind as the greatest conceivable…

    • 436 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    One of the most fascinating arguments for the existence of an all-perfect God is the ontological argument. While there are several different versions of the argument, all purport to show that it is self-contradictory to deny that there exists a greatest possible being. Thus, on this general line of argument, it is a necessary truth that such a being exists; and this being is the God of traditional Western theism. This article explains and evaluates classic and contemporary versions of the ontological argument.…

    • 172 Words
    • 1 Page
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Anselm covered two bases on how God’s existence became self-evident in Proslogian, but left many counterarguments open. It seems as if an ontological argument can be used to prove the existence of everything. While his use of syllogism creates a valid conclusion, his premises leave openings for other conclusions. For example, we could take his first premise, which states if the greatest being exists in the mind, it must exist in reality and apply it to something else. What if we don’t believe in his definition of God? Then we could say that in our mind existed a perfect anything. Since it was present in our mind, it must be in reality. Also, we can challenge this argument through an evidence standpoint alone. How can there be a God if he has never shown his face? How can we believe in something we can’t see? St. Anselm did not support his argument with evidential support; instead he used a priori justification. With this theory, St. Anselm unintentionally meant that anything can exist necessarily and we both know that is not true. He also inadvertently comes up with the idea that existing adds something to the being. “Existence cannot function as a predicate” (Himma). Why must something have to exist in reality for it to actually be there? Existing adds nothing to a being including perfection which means that a perfect being can be created without having to exist in reality.…

    • 766 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The definition seems to be different from most definitions of God. God is usually a creator, a controller of the universe, or an arbiter of morality. When Anselm tries to prove this form of God, it is disconnected from many attributes described as God. Another point against this line is that God does not have to be constrained by our thoughts. God could be something beyond our comprehension.…

    • 1239 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The Ontological Argument

    • 566 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Anselm defines God as a being “that than which no greater can be conceived.” He argues that, whatever can be understood exists in the mind and that the concept of God can be understood, so God exists in the mind. Anselm then tries to prove that God also exists in reality and not only in the mind. The first premises states “assume that God only exists in the mind and not in reality.” The second premises positions “but then a greater being than God can be thought.” Finally, we can conclude “but God was defined as a being that than which nothing greater can be conceived; so, no greater than God can be thought.” The second and last premises that “a greater being than God can be thought” and “no greater than God can be thought” are contradictions. Therefore, our original assumption that God only exists in reality must be false. Anselm implies that only a fool would deny God’s existence. He questions, “Why, then, has the fool said in his heart, there is no God (Psalms XIV. 1), since it is so evident, to a rational mind, that you do exist in the highest degree of all? Why, except that he is…

    • 566 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    Is there a God? This is a question that crosses the minds of everyone in the world, at least once. While this question is highly controversial, the world must come to the realization that there is not one definite answer. This may seem confusing to most people, and the concept will probably never be fully grasped. But there are five particular philosophers who have formed strong opinions and arguments to address the question at hand and seem to have it all figured out. Philosophy and religion do indeed have an unsettled relationship, but this relationship only challenges minds, inspires people to think, and allows others to obtain a deeper and more detailed perspective.…

    • 1416 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Better Essays