Preview

Summary Of Cantebury's Ontological Argument

Satisfactory Essays
Open Document
Open Document
662 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Summary Of Cantebury's Ontological Argument
St. Anselm, Archbishop of Cantebury (1033-1109), is the originator of the ontological argument, which he describes in the Proslogium as follows:

[Even a] fool, when he hears of … a being than which nothing greater can be conceived … understands what he hears, and what he understands is in his understanding.… And assuredly that, than which nothing greater can be conceived,
St. Anselm, Archbishop of Cantebury (1033-1109), is the originator of the ontological argument, which he describes in the Proslogium as follows:

[Even a] fool, when he hears of … a being than which nothing greater can be conceived … understands what he hears, and what he understands is in his understanding.… And assuredly that, than which nothing greater can be conceived,St. Anselm, Archbishop of Cantebury (1033-1109), is the originator of the ontological argument, which he describes in the
…show more content…
Anselm, Archbishop of Cantebury (1033-1109), is the originator of the ontological argument, which he describes in the Proslogium as follows:

[Even a] fool, when he hears of … a being than which nothing greater can be conceived … understands what he hears, and what he understands is in his understanding.… And assuredly that, than which nothing greater can be conceived,St. Anselm, Archbishop of Cantebury (1033-1109), is the originator of the ontological argument, which he describes in the Proslogium as follows:

[Even a] fool, when he hears of … a being than which nothing greater can be conceived … understands what he hears, and what he understands is in his understanding.… And assuredly that, than which nothing greater can be conceived,St. Anselm, Archbishop of Cantebury (1033-1109), is the originator of the ontological argument, which he describes in the Proslogium as

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    Anselm, Archbishop of Canterbury and a monk was the creator of the Ontological Argument. The main aspect behind the argument was that the existence of God was true, in simple words, God exists. The argument is deductive as it depends only on knowledge and logic, not on experience as experiencing God is impossible physically. It is also a priori for similar reasons; the argument relies on logic alone.…

    • 400 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    actually existing. As Anselm asserts, " And surely than that which a greater cannot be conceived…

    • 413 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Carney's Argument Essay

    • 501 Words
    • 3 Pages

    The issue of changing Australia’s flag and to become a republic has once again created discussion and subsequent debate across the Australian community.…

    • 501 Words
    • 3 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

    Gaunilo stated that if the ontological argument was applied to things other than God, then it led to invalid conclusions. He applied Anselm’s premise to the idea of a perfect island: I can conceive of an island that no greater island can be thought of; such an island must possess all perfections; existence is a perfection; the island exists. He also stated that the views of the “greatest island” would be subjective. Kant stated that…

    • 455 Words
    • 2 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

    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

    Anselm wanted to prove the existence of God, so he proposed the ontological argument. The ontological argument is deductive, and uses a priori reasoning. This means that it starts with a statement that is known to be true solely through definition (God is the greatest conceivable being) and develops the implications of this statement in order to reach a reasonable conclusion. The deductive reasoning allows him to simply showing what the definition means.…

    • 310 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    The ontological argument proposed by Anselm, in Anselm’s Proslogion is a priori argument, meaning it does not start from a feature of the world but rather a definition of God. It seeks to move from a definition of god to the reality of god by reasoning.…

    • 436 Words
    • 2 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

    Emotion in Hamlet

    • 5223 Words
    • 21 Pages

    Cited: Aquinas, St. Thomas. Summa Theologica. Trans. Fathers of the English Dominican Province. New York: Benziger Brothers, 1952.…

    • 5223 Words
    • 21 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    St. Anselm was a philosopher who proposed the first ontological argument in Western Christian tradition back in 1078 through his work Proslogian. An ontological argument is “an argument aiming to prove the existence of God through just thought of God alone” (Timmons 439). St. Anselm believed the definition of God to be, “That than which nothing greater can be conceived.” While Anselm argued God’s existence was purely through introspection, it can be disputed that just rationalization of God in one’s mind alone cannot contrive his existence in reality.…

    • 766 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Cosmological Argument

    • 505 Words
    • 3 Pages

    2. The first 3 “Ways” by St. Thomas Aquinas (to prove the existence of God) are called:…

    • 505 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Satisfactory 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
  • Good Essays

    Transcendental Argument

    • 593 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Is also known as the transcendental argument. This shows that Christianity is the necessary presupposition of meaning and rationality. If that statement is believed to be true than the denial of Christianity denies all meaning and rationality.…

    • 593 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays