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Introduction to Philosophy Lecture 5 The Ontological Argument

Introduction to Philosophy Lecture 5 The Ontological Argument. By David Kelsey. Saint Anselm. Saint Anselm of Canterbury lived from 1033-1109. He was a monk and later Archbishop of Canterbury. Wanted to see how far argument and reason could substantiate the central doctrines of Christianity.

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Introduction to Philosophy Lecture 5 The Ontological Argument

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  1. Introduction to PhilosophyLecture 5The Ontological Argument By David Kelsey

  2. Saint Anselm • Saint Anselm of Canterbury lived from 1033-1109. • He was a monk and later Archbishop of Canterbury. • Wanted to see how far argument and reason could substantiate the central doctrines of Christianity. • He invented the ontological argument for the existence of God.

  3. A priori vs.A posteriori arguments • A Posteriori Arguments: • An a posteriori argument has at least one premise which is contingent. It has at least one premise that is a question of fact. • A priori arguments: • Have absolutely no premises that are a question of fact. • Composed entirely of a priori claims. • An a priori claim: true or false in virtue of the meaning of it’s words alone. • The cosmological and teleological arguments… • The ontological argument…

  4. Defining GOD • According to the Judeao-Christian-Islamic tradition: God is the greatest or most perfect possible being. • What can we infer about God from this? • If God is perfect, he has every perfection. • Thus, God is: • Omnipotent: maximally powerful • Omniscient: maximally knowledgeable • Omnibenevolent: is perfectly good • Omnipresent: is everywhere

  5. A Reductiofor God’s omnipotence • An argument that God must be omnipotent: • Suppose God wasn’t omnipotent. • Then there could be a being more powerful than God. • That would be greater than God. • But God is the greatest of all possible beings. • So God must be omnipotent. • This argument has the form of a reductio ad absurdum. • Reductio’s always assume the negation of the conclusion they are out to prove. • The argument then derives a contradiction • The argument then concludes by asserting what it was to prove

  6. Anselm’sOntological Argument • Anselm’s concept of God: • Anselm uses the notion of God seen in the Judeao-Christian-Islamic tradition. • For Anselm: God is ‘something than which nothing greater can be conceived’. • This is not the same concept as the greatest being we can conceive. • Anselm is assuming the Great chain of being here. • If you run up and down the chain you find it easy to conceive of beings both lesser and greater. • Your mind is carried to greater and greater things…

  7. The Great Chain of Being • The Great Chain of Being: • God created the world ex nihilo, out of nothing. • The world is entirely dependent upon God. • Reality is partitioned in graded steps, which are infinitely close to each other. • Being and nothingness are mixed in all degrees in all things. • God has the most being, then the angels, then rational creatures, then more primitive life forms such as dogs, insects, etc., then to inanimate matter, I.e. rocks… • There is a direct correlation between being and goodness. • The more being something has, the more good it has. So God who has the most being, is completely good.

  8. Anselm’s Reductio • Anselm’s argument is a Reductio Ad Absurdum. The basic form of the reductio: • Assume God doesn’t exist • But then God isn’t the being than which nothing greater can be conceived. • But God is the being than which nothing greater can be conceived. • Thus, God exists.

  9. The form of Anselm’s argument • Anselm’s argument: • 1. Assume God exists in the understanding alone. • 2. God is something than which nothing greater can be conceived. • 3. Something than which nothing greater can be conceived can be conceived to exist in reality. • 4. It is greater to exist in reality than in the understanding alone. • 5. God is a being than which a greater can be conceived. (from 1 and 4) • Thus, 6. God exists. (from 1, 2 and 5)

  10. Evaluating Anselm’s argument • Evaluating Anselm’s argument: • Is Anselm’s argument valid? • Is Anselm’s argument sound? • Which premises might be false? • Premise 2… • Premise 3… • Premise 4…

  11. Denying premise 2 • Denying premise 2: • Some argue that premise 2 is false. • They say that such a definition of God is incorrect. • Thoughts…

  12. Denying premise 3 • Challenging the third premise: • Can you conceive of God as existing in reality?

  13. Denying premise 4 • Can we deny premise 4: • We can do this by claiming that existence in reality is not a perfection. • Thus, a being that existed in both the understanding and in reality is not more prefect than a being that existed just in the understanding. • Anselm’s reply would probably go like this: existence entails the ability to use all of one’s perfections • Counter: Is existence the kind of thing that can even be a perfection at all?

  14. Defining God into existence • Hume criticizes the Ontological argument for trying to define God into existence. • For Hume, it may be that thinking of God entails thinking that he exists but this concerns only relations of ideas not matters of fact. • A relation of idea is: • Discoverable by the mere operations of thought, without dependence on anything existent in the universe… • A matter of fact is: • Discoverable by observation of the external world… • So even though thinking God entails thinking he exists, this has nothing to do with whether God in fact exists. • A relation among ideas, even one that is necessary, gets no traction and can have no causal power on how things are in the world. • Relations of ideas cannot prove matters of fact. About matters of fact, we must consult experience.

  15. Refutation bylogical analogy • Refutation by Logical Analogy: • Many people think that Anselm’s argument just has to be wrong for it just shows too much. • Can’t we give an argument of the same form as Anselm’s, but for an obviously false conclusion. • Since the new argument isn’t sound, neither is Anselm’s. • This move is called Refutation by logical analogy.

  16. Gaunilo’s parody • Here is the argument: • 1. Assume the greatest possible island exists in the understanding alone. • 2. The greatest possible island is the island than which no greater can be conceived. • 3. The island than which no greater can be conceived can be conceived to exist in reality. • 4. It is greater to exist in reality than in the understanding alone. • 5. The greatest possible island is an island than which a greater can be conceived. (from 1 & 4) • Thus, 6. The greatest possible island exists. (from 1, 2 and 5)

  17. Anselm’s best reply • Anselm’s reply: • Can the greatest possible island even exist in reality? • Although the greatest possible being could have all the perfections to the greatest degree, could an island really have them?

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