Ontological Arguments The Ontological Argument - amazonia.fiocruz.br

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An ontological argument Otological a philosophical argumentmade from an see more basis, that is advanced in support of the existence of God. Such arguments tend to refer to the state of being or existing. More specifically, ontological arguments are commonly conceived a Ontological Arguments The Ontological Argument in regard to the organization of the universe, whereby, if such organizational structure is true, God must exist. The first ontological argument in Western Christian tradition [i] was proposed by Saint Anselm of Canterbury in his work, Proslogion Latin : Proslogiumlit.

Therefore, this greatest possible being must exist in reality. Since its initial proposal, few philosophical ideas have generated as much interest and discussion as the ontological argument. Nearly all of the great minds in Western philosophy have found it worthy of their attention.

Ontological Arguments The Ontological Argument Descartes published several variations of his argument, each of which center on the idea that God's existence is immediately inferable from a "clear and distinct" idea of a supremely perfect being. In the early 18th century, Gottfried Leibniz augmented Descartes' ideas in an attempt to prove that a "supremely perfect" being is a coherent concept. Norman Malcolm revived the ontological argument in when he located a second, stronger ontological argument in Anselm's work; Alvin Plantinga challenged this argument and proposed an alternative, based on modal logic. Attempts have also been made to validate Anselm's proof using an automated theorem prover.

Other arguments have been categorised as ontological, including those made by Islamic philosophers Mulla Sadra and Allama Tabatabai. Just as the ontological argument has been popular, a number of criticisms and objections have also been mounted. Its first critic would be Gaunilo of Marmoutiersa contemporary of Anselm's. Gaunilo, suggesting that the ontological argument could be used to prove the existence of anything, uses the analogy of a perfect island.

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Such would be the first of many parodies, all of which attempted to show the absurd consequences of the ontological argument. Later, Thomas Aquinas rejected the argument on the basis Ontological Arguments The Ontological Argument humans cannot know God's article source. David Hume also offered an empirical objection, criticising its lack of evidential reasoning and rejecting the idea that anything can exist necessarily.

Immanuel Kant 's critique was based on what he saw as the false premise that existence is a predicatearguing that "existing" adds nothing including perfection to the essence of a being. Thus, a "supremely perfect" being can be conceived not to exist. Finally, philosophers such as C.]