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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Pascal’s Wager vs. the Ontological Argument Pascal’s Wager was a groundbreaking theory posed by the French philosopher‚ mathematician‚ and physicist Blaise Pascal. Pascal‚ who is said to be the father of modern probability‚ felt that that religion should be approached as a gamble. It was one of the first efforts to incorporate the concept of infinity. The wager stated that‚ even though the existence of God cannot be determined through reason‚ one should wager as though God exists‚ because living
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Explain Anselm’s Ontological argument (25 marks) 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. Anselm put forward his ideas about the existence
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