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 argues the humankind of God from a deductive and a priori stance. God is a being than which none greater can be conceived. This is the response tending(p) 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 meat God must exist.This demonstration for the founding of God was immediately criticised by his contemporary Gaunilon. He argued that Anselms argument could easily be used to resurrect 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 everlasting(a) island blessed with all manner s of delight, yet it did not mean it must exist. However, Anselm responded to this claim arguing that a finished island contains contingency it is dependent, whereas God possesses aseity, is self-sufficient. This meat that Gods existence is therefore, obligatory, 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 retain existence. He used the illustration of a triangle with three angles which all add up to 180 degrees. This spirit of the triangle allows the triangle to be perfect and to be defined as a triangle. If the angles were taken 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 get ups according to Descartes that Gods existence is necessary.But, it can be argued that the ontological argument is using an analytic format to define God as existing. Immanu el Kant refutes this as he believes that existence as a predicate or property cannot define God. For instance, the analytic statement 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 positive 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 truly a first level predicate which is able to explain the second level predicate. For instance, the greenness of the apple is known through our senses but by adding the greenness exists we argon able to understand that such a predicate e xists in reality. This means that God exists allows us to understand that such a being as healthy as God does exist in reality as well as the mind.However from an empirical view, Thomas Aquinas would argue that the flaw in the ontological arguments attempt to demonstrate Gods existence stems from the fact that Anselm wanted to argue that Gods existence can be proven 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 strong in the second half, God is a necessary being. This is due 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 being, God is a being than which none greater can be co nceived. 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, playground argument and does not demonstrate Gods existence.