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Aim: To explore Descartes support of the Ontological Argument.

Learn Descartes' reasoning behind supporting the Ontological Argument by exploring necessary existence, predicates, and the perfection of God. Understand Descartes' view on God's existence through his distinct arguments in favor of the Ontological Argument. Consider the criticisms and ponder the concept of God.

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Aim: To explore Descartes support of the Ontological Argument.

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  1. Aim: To explore Descartes support of the Ontological Argument. • To know what predicate means • To be able to explain why Descartes supported the ontological argument • To consider whether we agree with Descartes point

  2. Starter: • Explain what necessary existence is in a paragraph.

  3. Predicate = Imply The main supporter of Anselm is Descartes (1596-1650). • Descartes accepted Anselm’s argument because he believed that words predicated themselves. He argued that there were some qualities an object had to have or else it would not be that object. • Choose someone in the room and write down the qualities they have that make them, them rather than someone else.

  4. What do these objects have to have in order to be themselves? • A triangle • A square • A computer • A human being • A mountain

  5. Descartes form of the ontological argument. • God is a supremely perfect being. • God therefore has all perfections. • Existence is a perfection. • Therefore God, a supremely perfect being exists.

  6. Descartes makes this point in Meditation 5 • ‘everything which I clearly and distinctly perceive to belong to that thing really does belong to it’ • ‘it is quite evident that existence can no more be separated from the essence of God than the fact that its three angles equal to two right angles can be separated from the essence of a triangle, or than the idea of a mountain can be separated from the idea of a valley’. • ‘even if it turned out that not everything on which I have meditated in these past days is true, I ought still to regard the existence of God as having at least the same level of certainty as I have hitherto attributed to the truths of mathematics’.

  7. What does he mean? • ‘everything which I clearly and distinctly perceive to belong to that thing really does belong to it’ So Mr Whitlock sees that student X has an argumentative personality, thus that trait is truly Part of him and cannot be subtracted from him- if it were he would no longer be student X. • ‘it is quite evident that existence can no more be separated from the essence of God than the fact that its three angles equal to two right angles can be separated from the essence of a triangle, or than the idea of a mountain can be separated from the idea of a valley’. Existence is an attribute of God • ‘even if it turned out that not everything on which I have meditated in these past days is true, I ought still to regard the existence of God as having at least the same level of certainty as I have hitherto attributed to the truths of mathematics’. What Descartes is saying is that what he argues is as rational as mathematics, so God’s existence must be at least as certain as mathematical truths.

  8. Problems • Descartes and the ontological has been criticised as being a mere play on words, do you agree? Write a paragraph explaining your ideas. • Points to think about: • Do we all agree on a concept of God? • How is God different from a triangle?

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