The Anselm Ontological Argument Philosophy Essay

The Anselm Ontological communication channel Philosophy EssayIn this paper I forget entreat that Anselms ontological p arntage for the costence of theology is indeed enough for establishing the inf eachible humanity of the great C erstivable Being. In fix up to accomplish this, I lead argue that Anselms suppositions be just, and that his demonstration rightfully follows his premises. I will also defend Anselms rivalry by demonstrating that expostulations to Anselms logical assembly line are unconvincing. My focus will be on Gaunilos objection to Anselms argument. Essentially, Gauinilos objection is that Anselms argument arse be altered to prove the conception of both invention simply by using the rendering that the creation is great than all other concepts which can be conceived this will be refuted.Before I begin my argument I will reconstruct the a priori ontological argument put forward by Anselm to prove the existence of the sterling(prenominal) Conce ivableAnselm begins his argument by introducing the fool, a reference to psalm 531. This fool has said that in his heart, that in that respect is no paragon, or denying the existence of God. Anselm states that even this fool, when he hears of this being of which I babble out a being-than-which- nonhing- great-can-be- public opinion take ins what he hears, and what he understands is in his understanding although he does not understand it to actually exist (Anselm 15). Essentially, Anselm makes the claim that even the fool is hale to surrender that the concept of the great Conceivable Being exists in the see, because he has been told of it. In order to prove the existence of God, Anselm adopts the fools position for his A priori argument. Anselm does not believe the fools position to be correct, but uses it to show that if God exists in understanding, or the mind, because He essential exist in trustworthyity.Anselm declares that it is whiz thing for an object to exist i n the mind, yet another to understand that it actually exists. To this end, Anselm moves on to give an example of how something can exist in the mind and in reality. The example of a painter is brought forward by Anselm. Before a painter creates a picture, claims Anselm, he has an understanding of what the picture show will look like in his mind. Upon completion of the painting, the painter will understand that it exists in his mind, for they had the image of the painting before he created it, and in reality, because now they can see the painting before themselves with their own eye (Anselm 15).Anselm next defines God as a being-than-which-nothing-greater-can-be-conceived. Anselm follows this rendering with the premise that if a being exists in the understanding, but not in reality, thusly a greater being can be conceived (Anselm 15). To assert this point Anselm argues, For if The Greatest Conceivable Being exists solely in the mind al unmatchable, it can be thought of to exist i n reality as well, which is greater (Anselm 15). Utilizing the idea that if a being exists only in understanding then a greater being exists, Anselm reaches the conclusion that a greater being than God can be conceived. Anselm does not believe that this conclusion is accurate, however, stating that it is obviously impossible. By reaching this conclusion, Anslem is trying to show that if one understands God to be the Greatest Conceivable Being and only exist in understanding as a concept, but not reality, then the conclusion opposes the premises.Anselms case is basically that because the translation of God is not in question, the fool moldiness be mistaken in assuming that God only exists as a concept. Therefore, Anselm reaches the conclusion that God must exist in both concept and in reality.I will now move on to religious offering a critical assessment of Anselms ontological argument. To accomplish this task, I will examine both the validity, and the sizeableness, of Anselms pr emises. In order to do so, a condensed dramatis personae of Anselms argument is required.Essentially, Anselms premises can be construed as much(prenominal)God is that than which nothing greater can be conceivedWe can conceive of a being than which none greater can be conceived God exists in the understanding,To exist in reality and in the understanding is greater than to exist in the understanding alone. Therefore,God inevitably exists in reality. According to chapter ii of write Philosophy, a valid argument is an argument that has a spurt such that if its premises were true, its conclusion would be too. There is nothing to signify that Anselms argument is invalid. Provided that the premises are sound, the conclusion does indeed follow. However, while the ontological argument may be valid, it remains to be shown that it is sound. A sound argument is one which is both valid and contains true premises (Chapter 2, Writing Philosophy). In order to show this, the individual premi ses of the ontological argument must be evaluated. Firstly, The truth of premise B depends on the acceptance of Anselms rendering of God (premise A ) as that than which none greater can be conceived. If we are to accept Anselms definition of God to be plausible, then premise B is sound because we have accepted the concept and have the idea in our understanding. If we do not accept the definition, then we are not able to go forward to evaluate the rest of the argument. This is not to say that Anselms definition of God is a controversial one, indeed it is a commonly accepted monotheistic recitation of the nature of God (Mark C. Smith, January 18th Lecture).Secondly, premise B is sound because existence of such a being is logically possible. No fault can be found with postulating the existence of such a being as outlined by premise A. Finally, Anselms assertion that to exist in reality and in the understanding is greater than to exist in the understanding alone is necessarily sound by our acceptance of his definition of God. By accepting premise A, as we must in order to evaluate the argument, we must concede this it is necessarily greater for God to exist in reality. As a result, we can see that Anselms ontological argument is both valid, and sound, from an examination of its premises. Anselms conclusion that God exists in reality logically follows the premises, given their soundness and validity.In order to demonstrate that Anselms argument is indeed adequate for establishing the necessary existence of the Greatest Conceivable Being, objections to the argument must first be examined and then refuted. One of the to a greater extent potent objections to Anselms ontological argument is that of the monk Gaunilo. The objection raised by Gaunilo is that the aforesaid(prenominal) logical debate used by Anselm to prove Gods existence can be used to prove things original do not exist. Gaunilo puts forth this objection when he argues about the existence of the Lost Island, a conceivable correct island. Gaunilos proof of the perfect island follows the same logical reasoning as Anselms. He starts with the premise that the idea of a perfect island can be conceived of by the mind. The perfect island is by definition an island than which no greater island can be conceived, and that if a perfect-island exists in as an idea in the mind but not in reality, a greater island than the perfect- island can be conceived (Gaunilo 17). Using a similar argument as Anselm, Gaunilo has shown that the perfect-island must exist in both the mind and in reality for the same reasons that God must exist in the mind and reality. According to Gaunilo, if one accepts Anselms argument as being valid, one must accept the similar perfect-island argument as being valid as well. Both arguments would appear to valid since if the premises are true then both conclusions must be true. The only critical difference surrounded by Anselms argument and Gaunilos argument is the use of the perfect-island in place of God. As a result, if Anselms method of reasoning is deemed appropriate, then Gaunilos must be appropriate as well. Gaunilo however states that this proof of the existence of a perfect-island is implausible, or doubtfully real (Guanilo 17). Gaunilo contends that it is only the definition of a-concept-than-which-nothing-greater-can-be-conceived that allows Anselm and himself to prove the existence of God and the perfect-island respectively. By proving one of the concepts, the perfect-island, to be implausible, Gaunilo feels that the other concept must follow suit (Gaunilo 17).I will now move onto a refutation of Gaunilos objection to Anselms ontological argument. The major fault with Gaunilos objection is that that by proving the existence of a perfect island, using an argument of the same structure as Anselms, he has tampered with the definition of an island. This error becomes apparent when considering what the nature of a perfect island would be. I n order for the island to be perfect its characteristics must be perfect as well. some(prenominal) variation from this conceivable perfection would make the existence of a greater conceivable island possible. Furtherto a greater extent, the perfect-island could be made greater in a mensural fashion if it was to have a slightly increased landmass this reasoning would persist until the perfect-island becomes infinitely large. An infinitely large island, however, is impossible. An island, by its very definition, must be surrounded by water, and something that is infinite in size cannot be surrounded. Moreover, a perfect island presumably has an abundance of lush trees and pristine beaches. The more of these that an island has, the better the island would conceivably be. However, there is no defined maximum outlet of trees or beaches that an island could possibly have for any one conceivable island, there is another, even-more -perfect-island with one more exotic fruit tree and one more white sandy beach. As a result, there is no island than-which no-greater-can-be-conceived the more trees and more beaches that are conceived, the more perfect the island would be. Therefore, the perfect-island moves towards infinity in its characteristics once again. The concept of the perfect island is therefore flawed, causing Gaunilos objection to be adequate to impair Anselms ontological argument.In conclusion, Anselms logical a priori ontological argument is adequate for establishing the necessary existence of the Greatest Conceivable Being. The premises of Anselms ontological argument were demonstrated to be sound when examined in the context of Anselms definition of the Greatest Conceivable Being. Moreover, Anselms argument was shown to be a valid argument, with a conclusion that follows from the premises. Gaunilo raised an objection to the ontological argument on the thousand that Anselms argument can be altered to prove the existence of any concept simply by using t he definition that the concept is greater than all other concepts which can be conceived. However, this objection was shown to be brusque on the grounds that the concept of the perfect-island is flawed when conceived with Anselms argument. Therefore, Anselms ontological argument is convincing, patronage Gaunilos objections, and is adequate for establishing the necessary existence of the Greatest Conceivable Being.