The Existence of God

The ontological argument aims to prove the existence of God as an a priori argument. One of the distinguishing features of Descartes's argument is its simplicity. The argument is deductive and based on reason alone and requires no need for physical evidence of God, it attempts to prove Gods existence objectively and necessarily.

There are some statements we know to be false without any further information, such as “a circle has 3 sides” or “she is a bachelor” these statements are untrue by definition. The ontological argument aims to make the statement “God doesn't exist” as absurd and false as the statements above, and for “God exists” to be an analytic truth, thus it is logically impossible for it not to be the case.

Descartes background in mathematics is very influential to his version of the ontological argument, attempting to make philosophy more objective and confirm able like mathematics. Furthermore Descartes believed each human has an innate and clear understanding of God which we are born with, this is important as we can form a definition of God.

“when I imagine a triangle, although there is not perhaps and never was in any place in the universe apart from my thought one such figure, it remains true nevertheless that this figure possesses a certain determinate nature, form, or essence, which is immutable and eternal, and not framed by me, nor in any degree dependent on my thought “

-Descartes (Meditations)

Descartes definition of God is a “supremely perfect being,” a being with ALL perfections.He seeks to simply establish the existence of God through this definition. As necessary (eternal) existence is a perfection, therefore a supremely perfect being must exist necessarily. If asked would you rather have a £10 note w...

... middle of paper ...

...o this objection about existence not being a real predicate could be that necessary existence is a real predicate as it tells you about the subject and is, arguably, “a property a thing can either possess or lack.” Necessary existence tells us something real and meaningful about the subject, in this case God. Necessary existence infers eternal, unlimited existence outside the boundaries of space and time, existence not reliant upon anything else. Where as existence could be argued to not be a real predicate as existence is only the actualisation of a definition in reality it doesn’t inform us about the subject. An imaginary unicorn looks the same as an existing unicorn therefore existence isn’t a real predicate. However Descartes refers to necessary existance in his argument not just existance therefore Kants objection can be regarded as not relavant to the argument.