The Ontological Argument St. Anselm of Canterbury – 1033-1109 Text: Proslogion – An Attempt to Prove God Exists

Ontological – The study of the nature of reality. 1.   God is that than which nothing greater can be thought. 2.     A God that exists is greater than one that doesn’t. 3.     If God does not exist, God is not that than which nothing greater can be thought. 4.      From 3 and 1, we can use a rule called modus tollens to infer that God does exist. 5.        Thus, God exists. Ontology and metaphysics are synonyms for us. A metaphysical question: Does God exist?

Analytic Propositions Why know what kind of proposition is staring you in the face? Evidence is not always based on observation and experimentation. Sometimes evidence is based on meaning. Anselm has evidence; it is all based on meaning and logic. Propositions whose truth value is settled by the meanings in the statement. Ex. All bachelors are unmarried men. No true triangles have four internal angles.

Key Ideas 1 – Metaphysics is the study of reality. 2 – Propositions whose truth value is settled only by meaning are called ‘analytic’ propositions. 3 – An argument is also called a ‘proof.’ 4 – Proofs can have evidence without relying on experiments and observation. 5. – If you seek to prove something, you should be clear about the meanings of your words. This is vital to a good argument.

Suppose we say God does not exist. Then what? Atheism: The belief that there is no God. Deism – The belief that there is a God that does not interact with the world. Theism – The belief that there is a God who does interact with the world. (That list is far from exhaustive.0 If there is a controversy the existence of X, both sides must agree on what X is. If both sides do not agree on what X is, the controversy is not about whether X exists. It is about what X is.