PHI 244
Reflection Paper #3
The key idea of the Ontological argument is that God exits in reality as well as in the understanding. Anselm’s first premise states that God exists in the understanding. The second premise states that God might have existed in reality. If something exits only in understanding and might have existed in reality, then it might have been greater than it is as stated in the third premise. If God can only exist as an idea in the mind, then we can imagine something greater than God. But we cannot imagine something that is greater than God. Therefore, God exists.
The first major objection was written in response called “On Behalf of the Fool” by Gaunilo. He uses Anselm’s argument by the existence of a