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! ===Anselm=== [[File:Anselm-CanterburyVit.jpg|thumb|upright|[[Anselm of Canterbury]] was the first to attempt an ontological argument for God's existence.]] {{Main|Proslogion}} Theologian and philosopher [[Anselm of Canterbury]] (1033–1109) proposed an ontological argument in the 2nd and 3rd chapters of his ''Proslogion''.<ref>{{Cite web | author=Anselm of Canterbury | title=Anselm's Proslogium or Discourse on the Existence of God, Chapter 2 | url=http://www.anselm.edu/homepage/dbanach/anselm.htm | publisher=David Banach's homepage at [[Saint Anselm College]] | access-date=2006-12-27 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121030145535/http://www.anselm.edu/homepage/dbanach/anselm.htm | archive-date=2012-10-30 | url-status=dead }}</ref> Anselm's argument was not presented in order to prove God's existence; rather, ''Proslogion'' was a work of meditation in which he documented how the idea of God became self-evident to him.<ref>{{cite book | title=Science & religion: an introduction | publisher=Wiley-Blackwell | author=McGrath, Alister E. | year=1999 | pages=89–91 | isbn=978-0-631-20842-6}}</ref> In Chapter 2 of the ''Proslogion'', Anselm defines God as a "being than which no greater can be conceived."<ref name=":0" /> While Anselm has often been credited as the first to understand God as the greatest possible being, this perception was actually widely described among ancient Greek philosophers and early Christian writers.<ref>Brian Leftow, "Why Perfect Being Theology?" ''International Journal for Philosophy and Religion'' (2011).</ref><ref>Nagasawa, Yujin. ''Maximal God: A new defence of perfect being theism''. Oxford University Press, 2017, pp. 15–25.</ref> He suggests that even "the fool" can understand this concept, and this understanding itself means that the being must exist in the mind. The concept must exist either only in our mind, or in both our mind and in reality. If such a being exists only in our mind, then a greater being—that which exists in the mind and in reality—can be conceived (this argument is generally regarded as a ''[[reductio ad absurdum]]'' because the view of the fool is proven to be inconsistent). Therefore, if we can conceive of a being than which nothing greater can be conceived, it must exist in reality. Thus, a being than which nothing greater could be conceived, which Anselm defined as God, must exist in reality.<ref>{{cite web|last1=Himma|first1=Kenneth Einar|title=Ontological Argument|url=http://www.iep.utm.edu/ont-arg|website=Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy|access-date=2011-10-12}}</ref> Anselm's argument in Chapter 2 can be summarized as follows:<ref name="IEP" /> # It is a conceptual truth (or, so to speak, true by definition) that God is a being than which none greater can be imagined (that is, the greatest possible being that can be imagined). # God exists as an idea in the mind. # A being that exists as an idea in the mind and in reality is, other things being equal, greater than a being that exists only as an idea in the mind. # Thus, if God exists only as an idea in the mind, then we can imagine something that is greater than God (that is, a greatest possible being that does exist). # But we cannot imagine something that is greater than God (for it is a contradiction to suppose that we can imagine a being greater than the greatest possible being that can be imagined.) # Therefore, God exists. In Chapter 3, Anselm presents a further argument in the same vein:<ref name="IEP" /> # By definition, God is a being than which none greater can be imagined. # A being that necessarily exists in reality is greater than a being that does not necessarily exist. # Thus, by definition, if God exists as an idea in the mind but does not necessarily exist in reality, then we can imagine something that is greater than God. # But we cannot imagine something that is greater than God. # Thus, if God exists in the mind as an idea, then God necessarily exists in reality. # God exists in the mind as an idea. # Therefore, God necessarily exists in reality. This contains the notion of a being that cannot be conceived not to exist. He argued that if something can be conceived not to exist, then something greater can be conceived. Consequently, a thing than which nothing greater can be conceived cannot be conceived not to exist and so it must exist. This can be read as a restatement of the argument in Chapter 2, although [[Norman Malcolm]] believes it to be a different, stronger argument.<ref>{{harvnb|Malcolm|1960|pp=41–62}}.</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