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St.anselm ontological argument essay
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In Anselm’s Ontological Argument, he is trying to prove that God exists. He used two preconditions to prove this argument. The first precondition is the important idea of this argument, he said that because the greatest things not only exist in the mind, but it also exists in the reality. The second precondition is that there is nothing greater than God can be conceived. So the conclusion for this argument is that God exists. In this paper, I am going to critique the Anselm’s ontological arguments for God exists. I believe that his argument is based on concepts that he defined, and he used those concepts which he thought was true to prove that the God exists. In the book Proslogium, Anselm came up with the ontological argument in Chapter 2 and 3. In chapter 2, Anselm claimed that things can only exist in mind or in both mind and reality. Then he said that things that in both mind and reality will always greater than the things in mind alone. He used the painter as an example to convince people. He said that when a paint has been done by the painter, the painter will understand more than the paint only in imagination. And in chapter 2, the words showed that Anselm is a believer for God, he even called people who do not believe in God are fools. Then he claimed that God is the greatest. For Anselm, God is perfection, like he said in the book God, “than which nothing greater can be conceived”. At the end of the Chapter 3, he said that necessary existence is greater than contingent existence. From all those proofs, he got his finally answer that God has to exist. For the first precondition, Anselm first claimed that things can exist in the mind or both in mind and reality. Anselm thought that the greatest thing that can be conceived w... ... middle of paper ... ...s own rule that “nothing greater than God can be conceived” and used this assumption to make everyone believe that God exists. In conclusion, Anselm’s ontological argument is based on the concept analyze instead of the fact or experience. He uses the logical analysis for the concept of God, then he uses the concept of the God which he gives to people as the start point to prove God exists. In this argument, the biggest problem is that Anselm is a believer for God. Before he tries to prove God exists, deep in his mind, he already thought that God is existence. Then he can come up with some concepts that can only accepted by the Christians to prove that God exists. I think that for a Christian like Anselm, the ontological argument still a good example to prove that God exists. However, for people who do not believed in God, this argument is difficult to convince them.
To begin, Anselm’s ontological proof functions from the essence of God to God’s existence. The argument
There are often many mixed views when discussing God’s existence. In Anselm’s works “The Proslogion” and “Anselm’s Reply to Gaunilo” and Gaunilo’s work the “Reply on Behalf of the Fool”, both of their philosophies on the matter are imparted. Anselm’s logic regarding God is correct as he sustains his argument even when it confronted with criticisms and it is comprehensible.
In this paper, I will examine the ontological argument of Anselm for the existence of God. Anselm defines God as “that-than-which-nothing-greater-can-be-thought,” which means, at least for Anselm, that God must exist because he is the greatest being that can be conceived. Furthermore, he argues that all people, whether or not they believe in the existence of God, at least understand his definition, including the fool who denies that God exist. Anselm, in addition to that, describes two main differences between understanding the definition of God, and understanding God to exist.
One of the most intriguing and admittedly baffling arguments for the existence of God is the ontological argument. It was developed by St Anselm in the 11th century, and the reason said argument is considered unique is because it is an a priori argument rather than an a posteriori argument , which most other arguments for the existence of God tend to take form. It attempts to prove the existence of God, not through any physical evidence, but rather by claiming that the very definition of God is proof enough of his existence; that he is an underlying truth in much the same way mathematical truths are inherently known.
Many philosophers, including Elliott Sober, have criticized Anselm for his reply to Gaunilo, as well as Gaunilo's attempt to show the Ontological Argument is not deductively valid. Gaunilo says that there must be something wrong with the argument, but he does not point out where the mistake is. It is necessary to do so because Anselm's argument does look valid. Indeed, Anselm says that the Ontological Argument is deductively valid because of the difference between God and an island. "This seems implausible, since deductive validity doesn't depend on an argument's subject matter, only on its form, and the two arguments have the same logical form" (87).
This argument was questioned by a monk named Gaunilo who challenged the premise that what exists in the mind, must also exist in reality (Oppy). Anselm responded to Gaunilo by creating a different aspect of the argument using the idea of God being a necessary being: his argument consisted of three things (Oppy). First, God is by definition, a necessary being. Second, existence is logically necessary to the concept of a necessary being (Oppy). Third, since God is a necessary being, he must exist (Oppy).
Over the years, there have been various interpretations given on what Descartes really meant in his ontological argument. However, most of given interpretations only examines the simple meaning of existence but Descartes arguments looks at existence in relation to the perfection of God. In short, what Descartes is claiming is that there is no any other way that he can examine the context of G...
The Cartesian Ontological Argument can be formulated as follows: (1) God is that being than which nothing more perfect can be conceived upon. (2) Existence is a perfection. Therefore, (3) God exist.
The answer is conceivable by anyone, no matter how imaginative or brilliant. In fact, what Anselm really seems to be after is the greatest possible being, though he proceeds in terms of what we can or do conceive.
According to the ontological argument, God usually represents one superior, sacred, all-powerful being, the heavenly oneness of greatest truth and spiritual benefits. St. Anselm of Canterbury designed the ontological argument by saying that, even a dupe can comprehend or appreciate the concept of an all-powerful being of which nothing superior can be created. Anselm constantly stated that a dupe articulates that the nature of this being is only in his thoughts and in the brain of other people other than in actuality. With words like perfect, necessary and existent, which are built into its d...
ONTOLOGICAL ARGUMENTS God generally refers to one supreme, holy, personal being,. The divine unity of ultimate good-ness and of ultimate reality. St. Anselm of Canterbury developed what we have learned to be the ontological argument. He began his argument by saying that even a fool can grasp or understand the concept of "a being than of which nothing greater can be conceived." He continues to state that a fool would say that the concept of this being's existence is only in his mind and in the mind of others but not in reality. However he also admits to the possibility of this being existing in reality. Whatever is understood by the fool is argued that than which nothing is greater can be conceived cannot solely exist in the mind but also in reality, hence, God exists. (Angelfire) This personally sounds like a salesperson's pitch to confuse and conquer for a sale. Gaunilo felt the same. He frequently debated with St. Anselm on behalf of the fool. He stated that it was not possible to visualize the concept of this perfect being because one can only imagine an image when one has an idea of what that image is suppose to resemble.
Anselm’s Ontological argues that whoever understand what it means to talk about God, will see is necessarily true that God’s exist. Anselm’s begins his Ontological argument with the concept and the definition of “God”. Anselm defines “God” as “a being than which no greater being can be conceived.” Moreover, Anselm on his Ontological argument claims that everyone, no matter if they believe in God or not agrees with his definition. He mentioned that from the Psalms 14:1 even the fool who claims he doesn’t believe in God’s existence. Anselm has been agrees that between the understanding of God as a concept and his existence are difference. Furthermore, he explains the point by using the painter of an analogy. Anselm uses an example of painting to demonstrate the understanding and the concept of God. He says that before a painter created a masterpiece of art, he can see the image in his head even though he knows that the painting not to exit, he understands the imagination of the painting as a
...that I have with Anselm's philosophy is that he believes that if you can imagine something existing then it defiantly does exist. In the book Anselm's critics state Athat someone who does not know the meaning of the word, who thinks only of the impression made on his mind by hearing the word and tries to imagine its meaning.
Rene Descartes, a 17th century French philosopher believed that the origin of knowledge comes from within the mind, a single indisputable fact to build on that can be gained through individual reflection. His Discourse on Method (1637) and Meditations (1641) contain his important philosophical theories. Intending to extend mathematical method to all areas of human knowledge, Descartes discarded the authoritarian systems of the scholastic philosophers and began with universal doubt. Only one thing cannot be doubted: doubt itself. Therefore, the doubter must exist. This is the kernel of his famous assertion Cogito, ergo sum (I am thinking, therefore I am existing). From this certainty Descartes expanded knowledge, step by step, to admit the existence of God (as the first cause) and the reality of the physical world, which he held to be mechanistic and entirely divorced from the mind; the only connection between the two is the intervention of God.
St. Anselm, also known as Anselm of Canterbury, was born on 1033 and lived to 1109. He was a very earlier author of many philosophical works. St. Anselm provided proof that there was existence of a Supreme Being or God a lot earlier than many other philosophers even existed. St. Anselm was the creator of the argument called the ‘ontological argument’. This happened to be the shortest and cut to the chase argument based on the proof of God and his existence ever created. This ontological argument is based off of the idea of being, not directly on observation. Trying to proof the existence of a Supreme Being using this argument can be a little risky because Anselm never really mentions evidence that a Supreme Being is in existence. He implies that a Supreme Being is in your mind therefore then it is real. If you think the idea of God in your head then he is real no matter what. This is where a lot of philosophers would try to argue against Anselm to try and prove him wrong, but there is evidence he shares that has people to believe that there is a so-called Supreme Being. Anselm argues that if God exists in your thought then he will exist in reality. He shows how he is a firm believer in the “thought” of God. Anselm has the power to make us think logically about the existence ...