Philosophy
Ontological Argument
St. Anselm
1033-1109
The Proslogion
Ontology & Metaphysics
How is the world?
An analysis of what exists and what can be predicated of what.
Does Bigfoot exist?
Is my cup white?
How is the world?
An analysis of what exists and what can be predicated of what.
Does Bigfoot exist?
Is my cup white?
Does God exist?
‘God’
Anselm
Middle ages
Monotheism – One God with very specific traits
Extremely powerful
Knows all that can be known
Creator
etc
Not Anselm
Polytheism – more than one God
Other deities
At least not in this proof
Players
Anselm
Theism – the position that holds two propositions to be true.
A – There is a God
B – That God interacts with the world.
(Deism is not mentioned. Deism holds that A is true, but denies B.)
The Fool
Atheism – the position that denies both A and B
(Agnosticism is not mentioned in the text. Agnosticism is the position that refuses to attribute a truth value to both A and B.)
The Ontological Argument
1. God is that than which nothing greater can be thought. 2. A God that exists is greater than one that doesn’t. 3. If God does not exist, God is not that than which nothing greater can be thought. 4. From 3 and 1, we can use a rule called modus tollens to infer that God does exist. 5. Thus, God exists.
Today’s New Concept
“God is that than which nothing greater can be thought.”
Anselm takes this to be analytic.
The truth value of an analytic proposition is settled only by the meanings of the words in the proposition
All Euclidean triangles have 3 sides; water is CO2