Ontological argument Warning: You are not logged in. Your IP address will be publicly visible if you make any edits. If you log in or create an account, your edits will be attributed to your username, along with other benefits.Anti-spam check. Do not fill this in! ===David Hume=== [[File:David Hume.jpg|thumb|upright=0.7|right|David Hume reasoned that an ontological argument was not possible.]] Scottish philosopher and empiricist [[David Hume]] argued that nothing can be proven to exist using only ''a priori'' reasoning.<ref name="Stanford Hume">{{cite web | url=http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/hume-religion/ | title=Hume on Religion | publisher=Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy | date=4 October 2005 | access-date=2011-10-16 | author=Russell, Paul}}</ref> In his ''[[Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion]]'', the character Cleanthes proposes a criticism: {{Quote|...there is an evident absurdity in pretending to demonstrate a matter of fact, or to prove it by any arguments ''a priori''. Nothing is demonstrable, unless the contrary implies a contradiction. Nothing, that is distinctly conceivable, implies a contradiction. Whatever we conceive as existent, we can also conceive as non-existent. There is no being, therefore, whose non-existence implies a contradiction. Consequently there is no being, whose existence is demonstrable.<ref>{{cite wikisource |title=Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion/Part 9 |last=Hume |first=David |authorlink=David Hume |year=1776}}</ref>|author=David Hume|title=Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion|source=Part 9}} Hume also suggested that, as we have no abstract idea of existence (apart from as part of our ideas of other objects), we cannot claim that the idea of God implies his existence. He suggested that any conception of God we may have, we can conceive either of existing or of not existing. He believed that existence is not a quality (or perfection), so a completely perfect being need not exist. Thus, he claimed that it is not a contradiction to deny God's existence.<ref name="Stanford Hume" /> Although this criticism is directed against a [[Cosmological argument#Argument from contingency|cosmological argument]], similar to that of [[Samuel Clarke]] in his first [[Boyle Lectures|Boyle Lecture]], it has been applied to ontological arguments as well.<ref>{{Cite web| url=http://www.philosophyofreligion.info/theistic-proofs/the-ontological-argument/st-anselms-ontological-argument/hume-on-a-priori-existential-proofs/ | first=Tim | last=Holt | title=The Ontological Argument: Hume on ''a priori'' Existential Proofs}}</ref> Summary: Please note that all contributions to Christianpedia may be edited, altered, or removed by other contributors. If you do not want your writing to be edited mercilessly, then do not submit it here. You are also promising us that you wrote this yourself, or copied it from a public domain or similar free resource (see Christianpedia:Copyrights for details). Do not submit copyrighted work without permission! Cancel Editing help (opens in new window) Discuss this page