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Anselm's argument for god's existence
Summary on the ontological argument
Summary on the ontological argument
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What phrase does Anselm use to designate God? Explain why he formulates his designation in this way. Do you think this is an appropriate way to speak of God? The Phrase he used was “God is that than which no greater can be conceived”. There are two reasons as to why Anselm words this the way he does, reason one is the idea that “ no greater can be conceived” he doesn’t want you to be able to think about something greater hence the idea that no greater can be thought of by a person.
Anselm uses the painter analogy, “When a painter thinks ahead to what he will paint, he has that picture in his thought, but he does not yet think it exists, because he has not done it yet. Once he has painted it he has it in his thought and that it exists because he has done it,” to explain why things that exists are greater and better than things we only think about or imagine. He says that a painter begin with an idea of what they want to paint and based on this idea, they paint the picture and don’t continue to think about “what they want to paint”. A painter is called a painter because they paint not because they can think. Anselm continues in his argument that, “If God exists only in thought, he could also be thought of as existing in reality as well, which is greater,” and so
It was heard in every sound, and seen in every thing. It was ever present to torment me with a sense of my wretched condition. I saw nothing without seeing it, I heard nothing without hearing it, and felt nothing without feeling it. It looked from every star, it smiled in every calm, breathed in every wind, and moved in every storm.” He explained that the thought of having knowledge and literacy
In other words, Anselm argued that if one can conceive a being that possesses all perfections, it is greater for that being to exist in reality rather than just in the mind. Therefore, with God being defined as the greatest conceivable being, He must exist in reality to solidify the definition. Anselm's argument relied on the concept of God being a necessary being, which is a being whose nonexistence is logically impossible. According to Anselm, if God’s nonexistence is a possibility, then He would not be the greatest conceivable being.
World War One was inevitable, there was so much tension that there was no way it could be avoided. I think the three main contributing factors to World War One were militarism, alliances and nationalism. What would you do if you saw someone walking down the street with a gun slung across their shoulder strolling down the road casually? This was a normal sight in post-World War One Germany, because of militarism. At the time of the war, Germany was able to supply 11 million people to war despite their relatively small size.
Anselm’s argument is based on this known definition of the concept of God alone. Descartes’ argument for the existence of God is based on his foundation of knowledge, logic. Humans have the idea in their minds of infinite perfection. Humans also have the idea of themselves as inferior to this idea as imperfect. For humans to have the idea of infinite perfection, there must be truth in the reason for them having this idea.
He then goes on to say that without knowing God or looking to God, one cannot know oneself: “man never achieves a clear knowledge of himself unless he has first looked upon God 's face, and then descends from contemplating him to scrutinize himself,” essentially stating that one must look towards one 's
2001 p. 180). To fully understand Anselm’s argument, a series of steps needs to be understood. The first step towards understanding Anselm’s argument is that one must first accept the fact that God is the greatest possible being. The second fact or point to note is that God exists in the human mind or understanding. The third point, step, or fact to accept is that if God exists only in the human mind, then God is not the greatest possible being (McGrath & OverDrive, Inc. 2001
Secondly, the lack of complete understanding of a God that is greater than any other is the basis of Anselm’s argument. In other words, one needs not understand how it is that no other greater God exists, because it is not possible to do that. It is the concept of understanding that such a being exists that is important. As long as it is possible to have such a state, then the definition given by Anselm is
St. Anselm and Descartes are known for presenting the first ontological arguments on the existence of God. The word ontological is a compound word derived from ‘ont’ which means exists or being and ‘–ology’ which means the study of. Even though Anselm and Descartes’ arguments differ slightly, they both stem from the same reasoning. Unlike the other two arguments on God’s existence (teleological and cosmological), the ontological argument does not seek to use any empirical evidence but rather concentrates on pure reason. The rationale behind this school of thought
It embodies the insight that there is a serious muddle at the centre of the whole of Descartes theory of knowledge. He says that we do not hold a clear idea of the mind to make out much. ‘He thinks that although we have knowledge through the idea of body, we know the mind “only through consciousness, and because of this, our knowledge of it is imperfect” (3–2.7, OCM 1:451; LO 237). Knowledge through ideas is superior because it involves direct access to the “blueprints” for creation in the divine understanding, whereas in consciousness we are employing our own weak cognitive resources that
In the Bible, God is anthropomorphized and made to seem as though he were human. Anthropomorphism does cast human traits and characteristics onto unhuman things, but its goal is not mere labelization. In the Bible, anthropomorphic descriptions are typically mistaken as a way to convey that God is like us and is a man with a body. Such characterization is done not because God actually is a man, but rather, it is done to divulge spiritual truths about God that are normally beyond our level of understanding.
If we think god is perfect and superior than everything we know then anything greater than god can’t be imagined. If we think god as not
Anselm says that God is the being which nothing greater can be conceived. This is the base of the argument. He says let’s assume God exists as an idea in the mind, there is a possibility that God exists only in our understanding. On the other hand, one can imagine that God is exists in our understanding as well as in reality. St. Anselm’s theory also says that a being which has all the properties of God and exists also in reality then this would be greater than the being which exists only in our understanding.
