The Australian philosopher Douglas Gasking perhaps best articulates what I am trying to say in his formulation of the ontological argument. He argued God’s creation of the universe is the greatest achievement imaginable. Just how great this achievement is depends on the quality and degree that the Creator was impaired. The greater the impairment the greater achievement the creation
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Anselm’s ontological argument for the existence of god is done via “A Priori” argument meaning this argument uses mostly reasoning and definition to prove his point. Anselm begins his Chapter 2 argument with his own understanding of God‚ “I may understand that you exist as we believe you exist‚ and that you are what we believe you to be. Now we believe that you are something that which nothing greater can be thought.” (Feinberg‚ p. 30). Anslem’s understanding of God is a vital part for this argument
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that Anselm’s ontological argument is sound and his conclusion logically follows from his premises. I will consider an objection towards Anselm’s definition of God and show that it is unconvincing and flawed. The objection against Anselm’s ontological argument that I will consider will be one brought up by a contemporary of Anselm‚ Gauinilo. His objection was that if you were to take Anselm’s logic of existence then you can infer anything into existence (essentially parallel arguments). I shall consider
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understand that I may believe‚ but I believe in order to understand. For this I also believe- that unless I believed‚ I should not understand”. Anselm employed his powers of reason in order to establish‚ by rational argument‚ the existence of God (Ally 2010:62). Anselm’s ontological argument When we are really thinking of something (and not merely uttering the associated verbal symbol)‚ that thinking is our understanding (2010:63). Of course‚ we need not understand that it exists‚ for we may be thinking
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Archbishop of Canterbury1‚ the ontological argument was born in the early 1100’s. The ontological point of view‚ according to St. Anselm‚ describes God as “a being than which no greater can be conceived”.2 St. Anselm concluded that if such being failed to exist‚ another even greater being could be conceived that does exist. This argument would be illogical‚ as no being can be greater than the greatest being. Therefore God must exist. As you can see‚ St. Anselm’s ontological argument attempts to prove the
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Modern Versions of the Ontological Argument Norman Malcolm One influential attempt to ground the ontological argument in the notion of God as an unlimited being. As Malcolm describes this idea: “God is usually conceived of as an unlimited being. He is conceived of as a being who could not be limited‚ that is‚ as an absolutely unlimited being.… If God is conceived to be an absolutely unlimited being He must be conceived to be unlimited in regard to His existence as well as His operation. In this
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Paley’s argument cannot be used to show there is an “impersonal‚ accidental forces because of its complexity. Thus‚ stumbling upon such an object provides good reason to conclude that there is a personal agent who designed it.” DePoe explains that Paley’s watch example suffered a major set back by the introduction of Darwin’s theory of evolution. Evolution offered a naturalistic explanation as to how life could possess the intricacy of “parts that have been adapted to perform their specific functions
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Explain Descartes version of the ontological argument? Ontology is the branch of philosophy that explores the whole concept of existence. Thomas Aquinas argued that a reason as to why the ontological argument does not work is that we do not know what God is‚ Descartes disagreed with this. Descartes‚ who was a very influential mathematician‚ philosopher and scientist‚ believed‚ similarly to Anselm and Plato previously‚ that human beings mind’s are imprinted with concepts such as equality‚ cause‚
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Part B. The ontological argument is a convincing argument. Discuss. The ontological argument was first made famous in the 11th century by St Anslem from Canterbury and was later taken further by French philosopher Rene Descartes. The debate is an attempt to confirm God’s existence as a priori argument. It does not rely on observations of the world around us it simply uses logic and the idea that it is illogical to say that God does not exist as its main factor. There are three elements to St
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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
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