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Ontological Argument - Coggle Diagram
Ontological Argument
Kant
Says the concept of God contains essential aspects which are needed for him to be God, it is like saying ' the existing God exists' - the truth of the statement is found within the statement itself.
Argues that all statements about existence must be synthetic not analytic. You need to go outside of a concept and find external, synthetic evidence to prove it's existence.
Argues that existence is not a real or determining predicate as an predicate adds to our understanding of something.
Therefore, he claims that existence does not add anything to the concept so existence is not a determining predicate.
100 real silver coins do not have any extra coins than 100 possible thalers so the concept of 100 silver coins is the same whether real or not
Anselm
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A painter has the ideas of a painting in his mind but the painting is better once is better once painted because it exists in reality.
It is greater to exist in both mind and reality than in the mind alone. Anything that exists is greater than things that exist only in the understanding or mind.
Therefore God must exist in reality because it is greater to exist in the mind and reality than the mind alone.
Gaunilo
Criticised Anselm as he disagreed with its use of logic and reasoning meaning that having an understanding of something in your mind must mean it exists in reality
Anselm claims anything that exists in reality is greater than things that exist in the mind alone so the 'lost island' analogy outlines the idea that any island is better than ones 'ideal island'. Anselm would say it is greater to exist in the mind and in reality than in the mind alone and because this is the greatest possible island, the 'lost island' must really exist. It doesn't exist because one imagined it.
Criticises Anselm for relying on reasoning alone. It is easier to have an understanding of an island because we have seen these things but we cannot claim to understand God with certainty.
Descartes
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Existence is one of God's predicates which is like the idea that the idea of a mountain cannot be separated from the idea of a valley.
Therefore, existence cannot be separated from the essence of God as the idea of existence is a predicate of God. So, God must exist and his existence is logically necessary.
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