This is a top band essay (21-25/25) marked by an AQA A-level Philosophy teacher for the question "Is the Ontological successful as an a priori argument for the existence of God?". It is concise and a good example of an essay done under exam conditions with weighting throughout. Any issues are trivi...
Is the Ontological successful as an a priori argument for the existence of God? (25)
In this essay I will argue that the Ontological argument is not successful as an a priori argument
for the existence of God as despite Descartes’ Ontological arguing that the idea of God is
formed a priori, Hume is able to undermine the notion that this definition can be proven true a
priori.
Anselm’s Proslogion 2:
- God is a being than which nothing greater can be imagined.
- God exists as an idea in the mind.
- A being existing in the mind and in reality is greater than a being existing only in the
mind.
- If God exists only in the mind then we can imagine something greater that exists in
reality.
- But we can’t imagine something greater than the greatest being.
- Therefore God exists.
A strength of this argument is that it is deductive since the conclusion necessarily follows from
the premises. Further, it appears a priori since it uses only analytic logic and mentions no
empirical evidence, being true via the definition of God.
A weak critique of Anselm’s Ontological as an a priori argument for the existence of God is
given by Gaunilo who attempts to create an ad absurdum argument however fails to use an
example with comparable properties to God. Gaunilo’s argument is as follows:
- Imagine an island superior to all other islands
- One can easily understand the idea of this island
- It would appear one cannot doubt the existence of this island because it is more
excellent than all others and existing in reality is more excellent than existing in the mind
alone
- Hence, the perfect island must necessarily exist as a condition of its superior excellence
- Anyone who would accept the existence of this island is a fool.
This argument seeks to point out the absurdity of believing God’s existence through the
Ontological as Gaunilo believes it would also entail the existence of anything one could imagine
as being maximally perfect which is not necessarily true. He therefore believes that the a priori
Ontological fails to sufficiently prove God’s existence.
However, Anselm responds to Gaunilo and renders his critique invalid by pointing out that an
island is not comparable to God. Anselm argues that islands have contingent properties such as
palm trees and sand whereas God is not contingent. He understands God to be a simple being
who has all perfections, unique and unlike all other creations. Therefore, only God can have the
property of necessity as he is not contingent. Thus Gaunilo’s argument fails to prove the
absurdity of God’s existence as a property of his perfection as God is not contingent unlike
islands which are. Thus far, the Ontological remains a successful a priori argument for the
existence of God.
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