|
The Ontological Argument The Ontological Argument, as presented by St. Anselm, attempts to prove the existence of a greater being than which no other can possibly exist. In other words, he argues that God exists; and how does he do it? --Through logic of understanding. There is also some opposition to this, and another philosopher brings it about by the name of Guanilo. Guanilo does not disagree with St. Anselm totally. Instead, he agrees in some areas but counters certain points later on. As a compliment to St. Anselm’s argument, Rene Descartes argues, “the supremely perfect being must exist.” St. Anselm states that when we understand what we have heard or read, it exists in our understanding even though we do not take it to exist in reality. In other words, we learn of something; we think about it; but it doesn’t mean that we know it to be experienced by our physical being. “ When a painter first conceives of what he will afterwards perform, he has it in his understanding, but he does not yet understand to be, because he has not yet performed it. But after he has made the painting, he both has it in his understanding, and he understands that it exists, because he has made it.” This passage allows us to grasp St. Anselm’s point, but does it apply to the existence of a greater being? Maybe, maybe not. This just shows how the understanding of something brings to light the likelihood of that something to be a possibility in reality. A painter might have an idea on a new masterpiece, but does it mean that he will make it? No. If the idea is a great one, he will most likely paint it, but if the idea is a bad one, he probably won’t paint it; however, the bad idea was a possibility, and can’t be ruled out. So making this analogous to the idea of God, we can say that the existence of God is a possibility that cannot be ruled out. To move on to the possibility being a reality, when we talk about a being, which no other greater can exist, this means that for it not to exist means that it is not a greater being than which none other can exist. A greater being must be defined in terms of its attributes. Since this being is supposed to be God, that means this being has no limits to what it can do, or how it can be.
Approximate Word count = 1671
Approximate Pages = 6.7
(250 words per page double spaced)
|
|
