AO2 Explain and evaluate the strengths of the ontological argument? Many religions accept Anselm’s definition of God. Theistic religions from the Abrahamic tradition, such as Christianity, Judaism and Islam, all accept the definition of God as proposed by Anselm and therefore they would also consider this to be an effective form of argument as it confirms their own faith views, that God is the greatest possible being, one which nothing greater can be thought of in the entire realm of reality. It is deductive and a priori What does this mean and how can it be a strength – Existence can be a predicate – If existence was a perfection/predicate of a supremely perfect then to deny the conclusion that a supremely perfect Being exists’ would be a contradiction. In fact, Stephen Davis says that ‘God, existence can be a real predicate. He claimed, my concept of the real 100 thalers has the predicate/perfection of purchasing power in the real world. My concept of 100 thalers in the imagination does not have this predicate. How can we use Davis’ argument to challenge Kant? It is based on a convincing premise it is better to exist in reality. Why is this persuasive? – Demonstrates God’s existence. Anselm did not intend to God to an atheist, what did he intend to do? The challenges fail. Gaunilo misunderstood the ontological argument and applied his criticisms incorrectly. Gaunilo does not seem to understand that God is unique and the ontological
AO2 Explain and evaluate the strengths of the ontological argument? Many religions accept Anselm’s definition of God. Theistic religions from the Abrahamic tradition, such as Christianity, Judaism and Islam, all accept the definition of God as proposed by Anselm and therefore they would also consider this to be an effective form of argument as it confirms their own faith views, that God is the greatest possible being, one which nothing greater can be thought of in the entire realm of reality. It is deductive and a priori – What does this mean and how can it be a strength Existence can be a predicate – If existence was a perfection/predicate of a supremely perfect then to deny the conclusion that ‘God, a supremely perfect Being exists’ would be a contradiction. In fact, Stephen Davis says that existence can be a real predicate. He claimed, my concept of the real 100 thalers has the predicate/perfection of purchasing power in the real world. My concept of 100 thalers in the imagination does not have this predicate. How can we use Davis’ argument to challenge Kant? It is based on a convincing premise – it is better to exist in reality. Why is this persuasive? Demonstrates God’s existence. Anselm did not intend to God to an atheist, what did he intend to do? The challenges fail. Gaunilo misunderstood the ontological argument and applied his criticisms incorrectly. Gaunilo does not seem to understand that God is unique and the ontological
1d-e-and-f-deductive-arguments-booklet.docx