Questions tagged [ontological-argument]
The ontological-argument tag has no usage guidance.
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The resemblance of 'being that exists' with the 'element' in the definition of a set
What exactly is the meaning of the term 'being that exists' which is associated with the argument from contingency. Can I equate this term with an abstract object (SEP) such as 'element' in the ...
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1answer
83 views
Existence being analytic of God vs. God being analytic of existence
Elsewhere, in light of the idea that understanding is not a species of knowledge but an epistemic genus parallel to knowledge, and then in terms of an understanding logic, I asked whether knowledge of ...
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64 views
Opposing Wolfgang and the species
I've read some summaries of Smith's thinking, which I haven't yet adhered to, here
The aim of philosophy is the good life or the best regime, the aim of theology is knowledge of God, and that of ...
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1answer
67 views
Is the description "the nonexistence of which implies a contradiction" itself contradictory?
Part of the essence of the Hume-Kant counterargument against the ontological argument is that, as Hume put it, there is no being the nonexistence of which implies a contradiction. (Kant talks about ...
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What is the response to this objection to the ontological argument?
I'm trying to make sense of the ontological argument for god's existence.
So how I understand it... we define god as a "maximally great being". And the argument implies that "maximally ...
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118 views
Possibly necessarily P → Necessarily P?
So I saw this proof for ◊□p → □p but I don't know if it's true.
◊~p → □◊~p (5 axiom)
◊~p → ~◊~◊~p (Definition of □)
~~◊~◊~p → ~◊~p (Contraposition)
◊~◊~p → ~◊~p (Double negation)
◊□p → □p (Definition ...
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2answers
192 views
In the ontological argument, can the existence of an MGB be rejected as provably false?
There are a lot of slightly different formulations of the ontological argument for God, but I'm going to use William Lane Craig's phrasing of Plantinga's, because that's the version I first heard. His ...
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200 views
Weakness of Spinoza's ontological argument
The ontological arguments of God are many, the weaknesses they suffer can be found in this reference.
My goal here is to focus on Spinoza’s ontological argument.
Spinoza's argument is different from ...
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1answer
104 views
Do inconsistent premises in an argument hurt a person's case while they try to defend something they believe in?
Do inconsistent premises in an argument hurt a person's case while they try to defend something they believe in because their statements contradict each other?
1
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1answer
502 views
Is God's existence either impossible or necessary?
This is meant as a supplement to a modal ontological argument to show that God's existence is either logically impossible or necessary. Am I committing a fallacy or a logical error of some kind or ...
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2answers
169 views
Does life have a natural or supernatural origin? [closed]
Let us define natural as "can be observed in nature", supernatural as "cannot be observed in nature".
Virtually everyone today believes that all life had to have arisen from nonliving matter. A point ...
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2answers
171 views
Variation of Ontological argument
what do you think of this variation of the ontological argument(is it an absolute proof?)
1)God is the greatest being conceivable. A key part of this is being all powerful(omnipotent)
2)God can be ...
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1answer
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Which of Descartes’ arguments for the existence of God is the most successful and why?
With regards to his 3rd Meditation and 5th Meditation proofs of God, I can't seem to find any reason to see one as being more successful than the other.
Mainly because while his ontological proof ...
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2answers
183 views
How many equivalence classes does the accessiblity relation have in S5?
I'm a math student taking philosophy classes.
So I have some math background but am absolutely unfamiliar with metaphysics&c.
Recently I've come around the "Nothing Is Impossible" paper as a part ...
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3answers
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Debunking Anselm's Ontological Argument
In a nutshell, Anselm's Ontological Argument states that given a God defined as "a being than which none greater can be imagined" it follows that this God must exist.
It seems to me that this ...
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1answer
934 views
Why do scholars not consider Avicenna's "proof of the truthful" to be the first ontological argument?
Scholars seem to believe that Anselm's Proslogion lays down the first ontological argument, at least in the West. I also understand that there is a debate whether Avicenna's "proof of the truthful" ...
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245 views
What is the explanation for inferring existence in every possible world from existence in some in Plantinga's Ontological Argument?
I found the following version of the Ontological Argument online (I'm pretty certain its Plantinga's but I couldn't find an exact source). Here is how it goes:
It is possible that a maximally great ...
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3answers
555 views
Anselm's Ontological argument for the existence of God. Am I getting it right?
Is Anselm's decisive point for the existence of God the fact that in order for a thing (idea , etc) which exists in the 'realm of understanding' to be paramount (supreme) it has to exist in reality as ...
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3answers
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What arguments are there for the existence of a personal God?
Classical arguments for God's existence, like ontological, cosmological, teleological, etc., only derive the existence of something very abstract, greatest entity, first cause, etc., which is then "...
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9answers
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Does this modal ontological argument prove the existence of God?
What are some objections to this form of the argument? It seems like the only premise that can be disputed is premise 1, but nobody has successfully disproven the possibility of a maximally great ...
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1answer
507 views
Existence as a predicate and Godel's ontological argument
I am referring to this paper https://github.com/FormalTheology/GoedelGod/blob/master/GodProof-ND.pdf which has formalized the ontological argument.
If I am not mistaken, watered down, the argument ...
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2answers
353 views
Does Gaunilo's objection to the ontological argument itself presuppose God's existence?
The classical ontological argument for gods existence proposed by
Anselm of Canterbury can be summed up as
God is the greatest possible being that can be imagined
If that being existed in reality it ...
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3answers
410 views
What are some examples of the implications of changing epistemological and ontological grounds of the research?
What are some examples of the variation in the answers of the same question among different researchers, that can be explained by the variation of epistemological and ontological grounds of their ...
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2answers
327 views
Would the ontological argument disprove the Christian god?
The ontological argument of Descartes tries to show that a supremely perfect being (=god) must logically exist. Let's assume that this logic were valid. We would have proven that a "perfect" god ...
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1answer
215 views
Possible ambiguity in Anselm's argument, and Kant's criticism
This is a follow-up to Could Anselm's argument also "prove" that a perfectly evil god must exist?, and also to Why is existence not a true predicate with respect to Anselm's ...
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1answer
363 views
What makes Leibniz's definition of perfection unintelligible?
Leibniz defined a perfection as a simple, positive quality in the highest degree.
Norman Malcolm says
I do not find his definition of a perfection intelligible. For one thing, it assumes that ...
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2answers
331 views
"Does god exist?" Is this question correct? [duplicate]
Before going into the topic first let me clarify what I will refer to as "god" in this passage. God, I think should be referred to as something that is analogous to the axioms of a formal system. ...
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2answers
141 views
Should the Ontological Argument be called something else than 'Ontological'?
Source: p 120 Middle, Introducing Philosophy for Canadians: A Text with Integrated Readings (2011 1 ed).
Here, we will begin by discussing the Ontological Argument. This is the most difficult of ...
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6answers
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What does Kant mean by "Existence is not a predicate"?
What does Kant mean by "Existence is not a predicate"?
How does that invalidate the ontological arguments? and how can he show that it's not a predicate?
By predicate, I think he means a "property"...
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3answers
420 views
A Critcism of the Ontological Argument for God
Allow me to present the argument:
(1) By definition God is that being which possesses every perfection.
(2) Existence is a perfection.
(3) Therefore, God exists.
Whether you agree is not important,...
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1answer
575 views
'If we can conceive God existing but he doesn't exist, then we can conceive a thing greater than him.'
Source: 6 minutes 50 seconds juncture; Lecture 2, Video 5 (transcription);
MITx: 24.00x Introduction to Philosophy; by MIT Associate Prof Caspar Hare PhD (in Philosophy; Princeton)
There are some ...
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1answer
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Is there a suppressed premise in Anselm's Ontological Argument?
Source: 5 minutes 20 seconds juncture; Lecture 1, Video 4 (transcription);
MITx: 24.00x Introduction to Philosophy; by MIT Associate Prof Caspar Hare PhD (Princeton)
[...]
Suppose God existed in ...
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7answers
455 views
Why is the 'problem of evil' considered so difficult?
If one believes in the 'supernatural' and some Supreme Being affecting our lives in various ways; if you believe we have free will and free choice and this Being allows us to have and use this 'free ...
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4answers
466 views
An Argument for the Unity of Truth?
I was thinking about truth, and came up with an outline for an argument that there is only one truth. However, this is just an outline and it is flawed, so I'm hoping you can help me critique and fix ...
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1answer
192 views
About Godel and Anselm
Was Godel's work on trying to make Anselm's Ontological Argument more 'feasible' with modal logic successful or has this work just been lost in the many abstract debates that confuse the issues?
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3answers
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Can definition be existence (in mathematics)?
The set omega, as the comment in this question points out, can be defined as the smallest set that is closed under succession and includes the empty set.
This is enough to define it uniquely, but to ...
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1answer
782 views
Is the proof for the God's existence of Harvey Friedman correct?
Recently, the Prof. Harvey Friedman published a paper in which he proves the existence of God starting from the consistency of the mathematics. Does someone know if this proof has been refuted or it ...
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4answers
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What is the argument in this Paragraph
What is the argument in this Paragraph (Aquinas's Five Ways):
The fifth way is taken from the governance of the world. We see that things which lack intelligence, such as natural bodies, act for an ...
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3answers
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How do I go from ◊∃x□[∃y(y=x) ∧ Mx] to ∃x□[∃y(y=x) ∧ Mx]?
I've been thinking about the ontological argument recently. I'm trying to go from
◊∃x□[∃y(y=x) ∧ Mx]
to
∃x□[∃y(y=x) ∧ Mx]
I choose that formulation because that seems to express x having the ...
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4answers
1k views
How can being able to conceive of something "perfect" imply its existence?
In this question and reading about the ontological argument elsewhere I have discovered that there is (and has been) a lot of discussion about it, and that it was taken very seriously.
Can someone ...
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4answers
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Where is the weakness in the ontological proof for God's existence?
I read the ontological proof for God's existence. As much as I understood, it says that if you consider that existence is part of essence, then the most complete essence should also exist.
Now, I see ...
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3answers
245 views
Are there any ontological arguments outside the canon of Western philosophy/scholastic theology?
The question pretty much explains itself. I'm interested in instances of ontological arguments (arguments purporting to prove the existence of God/Gods/a God) outside the Western tradition and/or ...
