Ontological Argument of St. Anselm St. Anselm was a philosopher who proposed the first ontological argument in Western Christian tradition back in 1078 through his work Proslogian. An ontological argument is “an argument aiming to prove the existence of God through just thought of God alone” (Timmons 439). St. Anselm believed the definition of God to be‚ “That than which nothing greater can be conceived.” While Anselm argued God’s existence was purely through introspection‚ it can be disputed that
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Aquinas’ Cosmological Ways Introduction Thomas Aquinas is a medieval scholar who wrote the five cosmological arguments that support the existence of God. A cosmological argument is an argument that supports the existence of God and that everything that exists was caused by something else. One of Aquinas’ ways to prove God’s existence is through the argument of possibility and necessity. He argues that there must be a first necessary being to set the chain of causes in motion which results in the
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of Darwin’s theory of evolution. Evolution offered a naturalistic explanation as to how life could possess the intricacy of “parts that have been adapted to perform their specific functions.” DePoe explains that an atheist’s main retort to the teleological argument is the fantasy of natural mechanisms operating “by chance or necessity that‚ if provided enough time‚ could account for complexities found in nature.” Darwinism has
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In philosophy‚ an ontological argument is a kind of argument that establishes the existence of some entity. In the case of Anselm‚ he argues in favor of God’s existence. In this paper‚ I will discuss relevant information necessary to understand Anselm’s reasoning. Then I will break down Anselm’s argument. Finally‚ I will present Galindo’s Perfect Island Objection and explain why his criticisms are unfounded. Before examining Anselm’s argument‚ it is necessary to understand the concepts underlying
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The ontological argument proposed by Anselm‚ in Anselm’s Proslogion is a priori argument‚ meaning it does not start from a feature of the world but rather a definition of God. It seeks to move from a definition of god to the reality of god by reasoning. The first line in Anselms ontological argument is “the fool says in his heart there is no god”‚ from this Anselm can deduce that the fool has an understanding of what god is .The fool has to admit that god is that than which nothing greater can
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Archbishop of Canterbury “The Ontological Argument” claims to both prove and disprove God’s existence. However this arguments possess a certain sense of ambiguity‚ meaning that it can be interpreted in different ways and therefore come away with more than one sensible conclusion towards the existence of God. In this paper i will delve in to each argument and give reasons as to how these arguments either disprove or support a belief in God. Firstly there is that of “The Ontological Argument” a pivotal movement
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Explain the Teleological Argument (25) The Teleological Argument is widely known as The Design Argument. It originated from the greek word ’telos’ which means ’end’. The is a posteriori and inductive argument which means it looks at the evidence and concludes from it. The classic Design Argument claims that the universe has order‚ purpose and regularity and the complexity of the universe shows evidence of design. This leads to the conclusion that there is a designer of the universe who is said
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Assignment: Deontological vs. Teleological Ethical Deontological ethical systems are associated with judgments that are based on an action. If the action is considered to be in a good intent‚ even with the possibilities of having negative consequences‚ then it is still defined as being good. Branches of deontological ethical systems can extend out to ethical formalism‚ religion‚ and natural law. Ethical formalism is defined as the motive and intent of a person has based on what action the person
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something is the correct duty to follow. The Teleological ethical system is the opposite of the deontological system. The teleological ethical system judges the consequences of the act rather than the act itself. It believes that if the action results in what can be considered as a good consequence‚ than it must be good and that the end result will justify the reason that the act was committed in the first place (Pollock‚ 2004). Among the teleological ethical systems are utilitarianism‚ ethics of
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“Proslogion” Anselm argues God as the greatest conceivable being that exists in reality. In this essay‚ I will show that Anselm’s ontological argument is sound and his conclusion logically follows from his premises. I will consider an objection towards Anselm’s definition of God and show that it is unconvincing and flawed. The objection against Anselm’s ontological argument that I will consider will be one brought up by a contemporary of Anselm‚ Gauinilo. His objection was that if you were to take
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