A star essay for the existence of God: deductive ontological argument
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Course
Unit 2 - Philosophy of Religion
Institution
WJEC
A star essay, full marks
easy to understand
essay example
ontological argument: deductive
colour-coded to help you receive an A STAR!
Red: key terminology
Green: scholars
Yellow: quotes
Explain developments of the ontological argument, with
reference to Descartes and Malcolm. 20 marks
The ontological argument is a deductive, a priori argument for the existence of God. It
consists of analytical statements which were proposed by several philosophers like Anselm,
Descartes, and Malcolm. It states that if the premises are true then it is illogical to not accept
the conclusion since ontological arguments derive from facts meaning it is based on a priori
understanding of what is already known, for instance, what the definition is universally
understood as, in this instance the definition of God leading to the conclusion that God
exists.
The ontological argument was put forward by Anselm of Canterbury in his Proslogian 1 and
2. In which he considers 2 key points 1) God is the greatest possible being and 2) God has
necessary existence. His argument consists of the idea that God is “a being than which
nothing greater can be conceived”. He believes that this concept naturally occurs in one’s
mind and can be understood universally even if it does not make sense in reality, since
Anselm is reliant upon the proposition that there is a difference between having an idea in
the mind (in intellectu) and knowing that this idea exists in reality (in re). he uses the painter
analogy which points out the idea that before it exists in reality, a painting needs to exist in
the mind of the painter before it becomes a reality.
Furthermore, the philosopher Descartes who is also known as the ‘father of modern
philosophy’ was interested in epistemology (philosophy of knowledge). He developed
Anselm’s ontological argument and viewed God as the perfect being to exist. He also had the
belief that our existence can be viewed as true or real due to the logical concept of thinking
as he stated “cogito ergo sum” meaning “I think therefore I am” because he thought that
certainty was necessary for a belief to be known. Similarly, to Anselm, Descartes believed we
are all naturally born with the idea of God in our minds, Descartes called these ideas ‘innate
ideas’. He used 2 analogies the triangle and mountain analogy. Descartes points out that
when one thinks of a triangle, they automatically arrive at the conclusion of something with
3 sides and adds up to 180, the reason for this is because there is a set of criteria that moral
agents were brought up knowing naturally, the same is with God the definition or attributes
of him are universally understood, meaning he necessary exists. Similarly with mountains,
one cannot think of mountains without also thinking about the valleys, like God you cannot
think of him without also thinking of his attributes: “I clearly see that existence can no be
more be separated from the essence of God”.
Moreover, the philosopher Malcolm wrote in defence of the ontological argument and took
the criticisms of it into account. He rejected both Anselm’s argument in Proslogian 2 and
that proposed by Descartes. Malcom accepted Kant's criticism that “existence cannot be
used as a predicate” by saying that you cannot merely add the concept of existence to a list
of qualities that something has and then claim that it therefore exists. Despite this, Malcom
did sympathise with Anselm’s Proslogian 3, in which he argued that if God is the greatest
possible being, then he must necessarily have existence, he says the fact that because God is
viewed as the greatest possible being then he must equally also be the described as an
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