Examine the major features of the Ontological argument for the existence of God.

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Examine the major features of the Ontological argument for the existence of God.

The ontological argument has a few key features, for example it is an a-priori argument, which means that it is based on logic alone and does not rely on us having experience of the concepts to relate to it.

One feature of the ontological argument is that it is a deductive argument, this means that the conclusion automatically follows the premises. If the premises are true then you cannot deny the conclusion. The premises of the argument are that God is the greatest conceivable being and that existence is a property that one can have. If we accept these premises then it makes it really difficult to deny the conclusion of the argument due to its deductive form.

A feature of the Ontological argument is that it is an a-priori argument, that is, it does not rely on our experience, only logic. It only relies on our knowledge of Anslem’s definition of God as being the Greatest Conceivable Being.

Another key feature of the argument is that it is in analytic form. This means an analytical statement that is true by its own definition, for example, “All bachelors are unmarried men.” In the same way the ontological argument says that the idea of God itself contains the idea of his existence. If this is true then God’s existence should be self evident to everyone. 's ontological argument purports to be an a priori proof of God's existence. Anselm starts with premises that do not depend on experience for their justification and then proceeds by purely logical means to the conclusion that God exists. His aim is to disprove the fool who says in his heart that there is no God (Psalms 14:1). This fool has two important features.

  • He understands the claim that God exists.
  • He does not believe that God exists.

Anselm's goal is to show that this combination is unstable. Anyone who understands what it means to say that God exists can be led to see that God does exist. On this view, the atheist is not just mistaken: his position is internally inconsistent. Anselm argues that God cannot exist in the understanding alone. The argument seems to proceed as follows.

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(1) Suppose (with the fool) that God exists in the understanding alone.

(2) Given our definition, this means that a being than which none greater can be conceived exists in the understanding alone.

(3) But this being can be conceived to exist in reality. That is, we can conceive of a circumstance in which theism is true, even if we do not believe that it actually obtains.

(4) But it is greater for a thing to exist in reality than for it to exist in the understanding alone.

(5) Hence we seem forced to conclude that a ...

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