Assess the Ontological Argument Essay Example for Free

Assess the Ontological Argument EssayThe ontological argument was first formulated by St. Anselm in the 11th century. It competes the earthly concern of idol from a deductive and a priori stance. perfection is a organism than which none greater raft be conceived. This is the response given by St Anselm to the fool in the psalm who believed there was no God. St Anselm the Archbishop of Canterbury and of the Benedictine Order explained that for God to exist in the mind he would not be the greatest being. However were God to exist in the mind and reality this would make a being than which none greater can be conceived, this means God must exist.This demonstration for the existence of God was immediately criticised by his contemporary Gaunilon. He turn overd that Anselms argument could easily be use to boot out the existence of many different beings or even places. In Gaunilons response on the behalf of the fool, he argued that he could conceive of a perfect island blessed wi th all manners of enamour, yet it did not mean it must exist. However, Anselm responded to this claim arguing that a perfect island contains contingency it is dependent, whereas God possesses aseity, is self-sufficient. This means that Gods existence is therefore, necessary, independent.Descartes famously wrote his version of the ontological argument in the Meditations in which he argued that God is an infinite being, perfect. For God to remain perfect he must then obey existence. He used the illustration of a triangle with three angles which all add up to clxxx degrees. This quality of the triangle allows the triangle to be perfect and to be defined as a triangle. If the angles were interpreted away from the triangle it would no longer be a triangle. This is similar as to God he could not be God if he did not exist. This proves according to Descartes that Gods existence is necessary. provided, it can be argued that the ontological argument is using an analytic format to define G od as existing. Immanuel Kant refutes this as he believes that existence as a testify or property cannot define God. For instance, the analytic literary argument a spinster is an unmarried woman is tautological and true by definition. But if you were to add the predicate existence it would have no direct effect on the statement, this means that existence cannot be a property of God.David Hume also went on to support this idea, as we cannot prove that existence is even a imperious attribute, we know that evil exists yet could this existence be the same as the existence of God? They would argue that the ontological argument failed to understand and make existence a meaning of God.However, there have been responses by other philosophers such as Frege who argues that existence is actually a first level predicate which is equal to(p) to explain the second level predicate. For instance, the honey oil of the apple is known through our senses but by adding the greenness exists we are a ble to understand that such a predicate exists in reality. This means that God exists allows us to understand that such a being as powerful as God does exist in reality as well as the mind.However from an empirical view, Thomas Aquinas would argue that the taint in the ontological arguments attempt to demonstrate Gods existence stems from the fact that Anselm wanted to argue that Gods existence can be turn up from de dicto instead of what is real, and this caused the argument to be weak. On the other hand, some will still argue that St Anselm and the ontological argument is still fuddled in the second half, God is a necessary being. This is imputable to the fact that only Gods existence can be either necessary or impossible and because it is possible, God is proven to exist.To evaluate the whole ontological arguments attempt to prove and demonstrate Gods existence, it is clear due to the deductive stance, it shouldnt be argued as the conclusion drawn must be God is a necessary be ing, God is a being than which none greater can be conceived. But as soon as you understand that definition you will find that it could be used to prove the existence of many things and beings. The ontological argument proves the idea that if God exists he is going to be a necessary being, but it does not prove that he actually does exist. Therefore as Richard Dawkins would describe it infinite, vacation spot argument and does not demonstrate Gods existence.