Explain how Descartes developed Anselm's argument that God's existence is necessary

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Explain how Descartes developed Anselm's argument that God's existence is necessary   [25 marks]

The ontological argument is concerned with the being or nature of God. Anselm's main argument that he put forth was that God's existence is necessary, he summarised it in four main points: God is the greatest possible being which can be conceived, God may exist in the mind alone or in reality as well, something which exists in reality and in the mind is greater than something that exists as an idea in the mind alone, and Therefore, God must exist in reality and in the mind.Anselms argument is a reply to the fool who says there is no God and this gives Anselm a starting point. For the fool to say there is no God, the fool has to have an idea in their mind what God is like. Anselm suggests that the definition in mind is that God is the greatest possible being, hence, Anselm claims God is the greatest possible being that can be conceived. Anselm then points out, that it is greater to exist in reality than in the minds alone, for example, people have an idea of what a unicorn is and can give a description of it, however while we can happily talk about the idea of a unicorn and its nature or qualities, it does not make it exist.

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Anselm's second argument concludes that God has to exist and cannot fail to exist, in philosophical terms this is called necessary existence. Anything which has to exist and cannot fail to exist is said by philosophers exist by necessity. Most things that exist depend on something else for their existence, for example, your home only exists in reality because some built it, you cannot say your home had to exist, because it was up to the builder to decide whether to build it. This type of existence is identified as contingent existence. Contingent existence refers to something which depends ...

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