Ontological Argument Analysis

An argument that attempts to prove the existence of God through abstract reasoning alone is known as the Ontological argument. The argument begins with a clear explanation of the concept of God. When people talk or think about "God" they usually think or say that he 's a "perfect being" meaning He is flawless, ideal

The best summary of Kant's view of Enlightenment lies in the first paragraph of his essay "An Answer to the Question: What is Enlightenment?": Sapere Aude. Translated 'dare to know,' the phrase "is the motto of enlightenment." For Kant, enlightenment means rising from the self-imposed stupor which substitutes obedience for reason and which atrophies man's ability to think for himself and develop his natural capacities. Laziness and cowardice prevent man from enlightening himself, an activity which becomes harder over time since man becomes comfortable and content in his stupor. Likening mankind to livestock, Kant cites the army officer, the pastor, and the physician as guardians who paralyze man's

While theology may take God 's existence as necessary on the basis of faith, or discovery, many philosophers have thought it’s possible to prove by reason that there must be a God. The teleological argument, also known as the argument from design simply states that a designer must exist since the universe and living things display elements of design in their order, consistency, unity and pattern. It is based on observations of the order in the universe and the natural world, to conclude that it is

God exists in reality just by being understood in the mind. In Anselm’s The Ontological Argument, he analyzes the definition of god in his own version of the ontological argument. He claims that god cannot exist solely in the mind without also existing in reality. God is too great a being to be only understood in the mind without existing, which would make him less than great and contradict the understanding.

The ontological argument was first developed by St. Anselm. In his address, Anselm considered the Fool of Psalm 14, who held the belief that there is no God. He justified that the Fool’s argument was indeed self-undermining. In the ontological argument, Anselm argued that denying that God exists shows that God does exist. He labeled God as a unique perfect being; all-knowing, all-good, and all-powerful. In his argument, Anselm draws the distinction between “existing in the mind” and “existing in reality”. The example provided was when a person intends on doing something, it exist in the mind; whereas when a person has actually done something, it exist in reality. However, there are many things that exist only in reality such as the example

Firstly, the Enlightenment brought as one its main tenants that people should be free to think for themselves. Immanuel Kant uses the phrase “Have courage to use your own reason” in his What is Enlightenment? thesis. Kant is mentioning how there exists so many institutions designed to limit

The ontological argument was first formulated by St. Anselm in the 11th century. It argues the existence of God from a deductive and a priori stance. God is a being than which none greater can be conceived. This is the response given by St Anselm to the fool in the psalm who believed there was no God. St Anselm the Archbishop of Canterbury and of the Benedictine Order explained that for God to exist in the mind he would not be the greatest being. However were God to exist in the mind and reality this would make a being ‘than which none greater can be conceived’, this means God must exist.

Enlightenment is described as a period of intellectual growth. Immanuel Kant is a German philosopher and a leading figure of modern philosophy. In 1784, Kant released an essay titled, “Answering the Question: What Is Enlightenment?” The essay was written during a period of intense political and social changes in Prussia. The essay is a plea for society to think autonomously and with free will. In the essay, Kant asserts that one must have an enlightened approach to life. Kant describes enlightenment as “man’s emergence from his self imposed immaturity” (Kant 41). He goes to describe immaturity as, “the inability to use one’s understanding without the guidance of another” (Kant 41). Kant states the motto of enlightenment as ““Have courage to use your own understanding”” (Kant 41). In the essay, Kant also outlines the obstacles of enlightenment. The author provides the definitions of private and public use of reason to further elucidate the concept of enlightenment. The aspect of public and private reason can be easily muddled. Immanuel Kant uses the essay to distinguish between the act of collectively deciding on a course of action and the act of implementing those collective decisions privately. The distinction is critical: public reason is a matter of acting in accordance to oneself, whereas private use of reason is a matter of submitting to authority. To provide this distinction, the author uses various examples of how public and private use of reason is evident I all

Premise number one is Anselm’s conception of God. Premise number two is a logical truth, again according to Anselm. Finally, premise number three simply follows from the previous two premises. In short, Anselm’s thinking behind his argument is “because a supreme being exists in the understanding, it must exist in reality.” He defends his argument by comparing a non-existent “something” with an existent “something”. An existent “something”, says Anselm, is greater than a non-existent “something”. If God were non-existent, then we could imagine a God greater than he, namely an

Many different philosophers have argued the existence of God in the form of ontological arguments. The first philosopher to make such argument is Saint Anselm of Canterbury. St. Anselm argued that God is “something than which nothing greater can be imagined” (Barnes). He believed that there was nothing in this world whose existence and understanding could be imagined to be greater than the existence of God and that even a fool would agree that there is something in this universe in which nothing can be greater than. Another philosopher who argued on the existence of god is Guanilo. Guanilo argued that if the greatest of something (he gave the argument of an island) can exist in the mind, then it must have to exist in reality. If there is something

The nature of this question is pointing towards ontological arguments, these arguments claim that understanding God’s definition to be true can prove His existence. The proof used is a priori and this means that the propositions do no not require sense experience to be understood as true. The name ontological is taken from two Greek words, ‘ontos’ (being) and ‘logos’ (study of) which shows that the argument is concerned with the nature of God, and it is from His nature that His existence is argued for. In Proslogian, Anselm put forward his version of an ontological argument and his argument looks at having a definition for God that any person can believe, both the fool and the believer. I am going to argue against his argument as looking

The Ontological Argument presented by Anselm is false because of premise two. Anselm argues that God’s existence is provable in a priori, this means that one knows God exists simply by reason alone and therefore does not need any prior experience to know it is true. In the next section, I will explain the premises and defend Anselm’s point. In third section, I will explain how his point is

The debate of the existence of God had been active since before the first philosopher has pondered the question. Anselm’s Ontological Argument was introduced during the 11th century and had stood deductively valid until the 18th century. Then there are the arguments to aim disprove God, such as the Argument from Evil.

The existence of God is something that most people take for granted. In your upbringing you are taught that God is the most supreme being, the creator of all, infinite and eternal. Taking into account the type of society in which we live in and the fact that it is usually our parents who teach us about God, most people do not even question his existence. Many philosophers who believe in God have tried to prove his existence using many different types of argument. One of these arguments is the ontological argument. It was made famous by the 11th century philosopher Anselm. The ontological argument has three properties: 1. It is an a priori argument. 2. It treats existence as a property. 3. It is

Kant’s ideas on enlightenment offer us a way to develop our own understanding of the world around us and its affairs. A man must strive for enlightenment because in the stage of enlightenment he can follow and understand what his own reason could decipher rather than blindly following the dictates of others. Enlightenment is the stage where a person is capable of using his own reasoning to make sense of the world. He is ready to take the next step and willing to see things through his own eye and does not depend upon others to tell him the way. Kant says, “Enlightenment is man’s emergence from his self-imposed immaturity. Immaturity is the inability to use one’s understanding without guidance from another… “Have the courage to use your own understanding!”–that is the motto of enlightenment.” (Kant) A person who has attained enlightenment meaning who has freed himself from the shackles of intellectual slavery and who can now comprehend the world without getting dictates of the guardians is fully equipped to embrace what the madman