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A more recent ontological argument came from Kurt Gödel, who proposed a formal argument for God's existence. Norman Malcolm also revived the ontological argument in 1960 when he located a second, stronger ontological argument in Anselm's work; Alvin Plantinga challenged this argument and proposed an alternative, based on modal logic.
Such reasoning underpins 'modal' formulations of the ontological argument. S5 is equivalent to the adjunction . [4] Leibniz proposed an ontological argument for the existence of God using this axiom. In his words, "If a necessary being is possible, it follows that it exists actually".
This counter-argument has been questioned by Gettings, [17] who agrees that the axioms might be questioned, but disagrees that Oppy's particular counter-example can be shown from Gödel's axioms. Religious scholar Fr. Robert J. Spitzer accepted Gödel's proof, calling it "an improvement over the Anselmian Ontological Argument (which does not ...
In the context of philosophy, the term is commonly used in critiques of ontological arguments for the existence of God and the principle of divine simplicity. [1] [3] For example, Gödel's ontological proof contains as a theorem, which combined with the axioms of system S5 leads to modal collapse. [4]
The Meinongian argument is a type of ontological argument [1] or an "a priori argument" that seeks to prove the existence of God. [2] This is through an assertion that there is "a distinction between different categories of existence." [3] The premise of the ontological argument is based on Alexius Meinong's works.
Willard Van Orman Quine provided an early and influential formulation of ontological commitment: [4]. If one affirms a statement using a name or other singular term, or an initial phrase of 'existential quantification', like 'There are some so-and-sos', then one must either (1) admit that one is committed to the existence of things answering to the singular term or satisfying the descriptions ...
In The Only Possible Argument, Kant questions both the ontological argument for God (as proposed by Anselm of Canterbury) and the argument from design. Kant argues that the internal possibility of all things presupposes some existence: [1] Accordingly, there must be something whose nonexistence would cancel all internal possibility whatsoever.
The book also contains other essays in which Russell considers a number of logical arguments for the existence of God, including the first cause argument, the natural-law argument, the argument from design, and moral arguments. He also discusses specifics about Christian theology. His conclusion: