Abstract
This paper will discuss ontology through the issue of tattoos. By understanding the ideology behind tattoing, we can see how ontological debates range in the substance and process ontology theories.

Abstract
This paper specifically looks at two essays by Quine: "On What There Is" and "Identity, Ostension, and Hypostasis." In each of these essays, Quine eloquently, clearly and often humorously lays out the means by which he arrives at his ontological conclusion. The paper examines these essays, comparing their modes of emparting Quine's theories.

From the Paper
"If we imagine trying to teach someone, say a stranger to our language, to what thing the name "river" refers, we can point to various "river stages" of the same river, stages which, by virtue of their being spatially spread, adhere to temporal spread as well. "River" it turns out refers not just to an object but to a process, a conglomeration of an infinite number of river stages spread over time and space. To identify to our new friend only "this river", we must assume his prior knowledge of "river". But, to give him the notion of "river" in general, we need only point to numerous river stages of several rivers. Finally, to help our friend's understanding of "Caster", we merely replace "river" with "Caster" in our oral repetitions. By means of induction, a stranger can acquire some modicum of awareness of the words we use to identify spatio-temporal concrete objects."

Tags:logic, essay, awareness, theory, philosophy

Abstract
Sartre, Camus and De Beauvoir based their notions about freedom on nothingness, absurdity and ambiguity, respectively. The ideas of all three theorists converge, however, and all of them provide the same kinds of notions about a meaningless life without God. It may not have taken them a long time to discover this on their own but they probably never tried to think deep enough.

Abstract
This paper discusses and compares Martin Heidegger's phenomenological analysis of human existence and St. Anselm's ontological argument on the existence of God. The writer describes the concept of "dasein," or "being," and the special meanings that Heidegger assigned to it. The writer explains how Heidegger saw being as preceding knowing and how his argument progresses to the conclusion that the being of "dasein" is time. St. Anselm, on the other hand, begins with a negative proposition and uses logic to deduce the existence of God. The writer concludes that while St. Anselm derives everything else from the generalization of God's existence from logic, Heidegger finds it nearly impossible to even completely understand the concept of being.

Outline:
Heidegger
St. Anselm
Comparison

From the Paper
"St. Anselm advanced that since God is that, than which nothing greater can be thought, He must necessarily exist in reality (Kent 2006). His ontological argument was in the form of a deduction ad absurdum. It presents a hypothesis, which presents unacceptable or non-valid consequences, which make the hypothesis false. He argues that God is that "than which no greater can be conceived" and sets it in conflict with the hypothesis that God does not exist. If the hypothesis is accepted or valid, then nothing imaginable can be greater than God. It also argues that a God that exists is greater than a God that does not exist."

Tags:historicality, individual, metaphysics, pre-scientific, non-existent, empirical, understanding

Abstract
In this article, the writer compares and contrasts the ontologies of Anselm, Descartes and Kant. The writer maintains that Anselm's ontology is superior to the other two. The writer discusses that Anselm's ontology shows that all three arguments are indeed the same. But Descartes and Kant are in the process of criticizing Anselm, and their criticisms are unjust and misplaced. The writer maintains that this leads them to construct convoluted arguments while saying the same thing as Anselm does. The writer concludes that Anselm's is judged to be the superior argument because it is simple and intuitive.

From the Paper
"Ontology is a purported proof that God exists. The ontology provided by St. Anselm in the eleventh century set the standard in Western thought, and on which all subsequent ontology attempts to measure itself. Before the renaissance and the Age of Reason it was generally agreed that only a fool would deny the existence of God. Accordingly the ontology of St. Anselm employs the attitude of a fool - meaning some one without any of the higher concepts of philosophy - as the crux of the argument. The argument commences with a definition of God ... "

Tags:mind, matter, material, understanding, reality

Abstract
This essay looks at the argument for the existence of God, by arguing against Kant's criticism of the Anselmian Ontological Argument in favor of God. It details the Ontological Argument, noting the definitions of the priori, a posteriori, necessary and contingent propositions. It then looks at how Kant built on Aquinas' proofs of the existence of God, and refutation of Anselm's proofs, but then how Kant's criticism fails through his inconclusive argument that God must not exist in order to exist.

From the Paper
"A Criticism of the Ontological Argument for God The Ontological Argument was formulated by Saint Anselm (1033 - 1109), the future Archbishop of Canterbury. He made the influential "A Priori" argument in favor of the existence of God. This argument would later be famously rejected by Saint Thomas Aquinas (c. 1224 - 1274), an accomplished theologian and philosopher, who rejected Anselms' argument with a five point "A Posteriori" argument in favor of God. It would be later Immanuel Kant (1724 - 1804) who would launch one of the strongest critiques of Anselm's ontological argument, by arguing that existence is not actually a property of existing things."

Tags:anselm, kant, ontological

Abstract
This paper examines ontological difficulty and compares the strategies for navigating ontological difficulty in Patrocinio Scheickart's "Reading Ourselves: Toward a Feminist Theory of Reading" and Louis Marin's "Disneyland: A Degenerate Utopia." The paper concludes that ontological difficulty is indeed a broken link between text and meaning, but one that is a necessary step toward better-informed interpretation.

From the Paper
"This comparison of Schweickart and Marin's strategies for navigating ontological difficulty provides several insights into the nature of the concept. Firstly, both critics find that in order to transcend ontological difficulty, one must draw attention to the social and historical context of the text, be it patriarchy or capitalism. Ignoring the context on a text forfeits the reader's power of understanding, and allows ontological difficulty to flourish. Secondly, the broken link between text and meaning provides the critic with a useful starting point. For Schweickart, such misunderstanding led to her exploration of the female reading experience, and an avenue by which this link can be reinstated through the informed reading taking control of the textual experience. What was once a one-way conversation is transformed into an enlightened dialogue. For Marin, the very lack of the possibility of this dialogue provides clues to the hidden purpose of the text, wherein authorial power has been abused. Where the reader is given no autonomy and there is no opportunity for a range of reading experiences, the text becomes ideology. We may conclude that ontological difficulty is indeed a broken link between text and meaning, but one that is a necessary step toward better-informed interpretation."

Tags:text, meaning, dialogue

Abstract
A definition of an ontological argument is provided - to show that God exists without appealing to any real proof. The paper then introduces Middles Ages Saint Anselm's proposed ontological argument whereby he stated that the thought of God would not exist in the human mind if the potentiality for God's presence were not already embedded in the human mind.

From the Paper
"The basics of the ontological argument are: God is defined as the being in which none greater is possible. It is true that the notion of God exists in the understanding and in reality, meaning in the mind and as a possible being. If God exists only in the mind and may have existed in reality, then God might have been greater than He is. But if God is a being in which none greater is possible, then it is not possible for God to have existed only in the mind. The conclusion is that God must exist in reality, as well."

Tags:religion, faith, god, deity, belief

Abstract
This paper explains that the "ontological argument" in favor of God's existence has remained one of the keys to the fundamental notion that the existence of God can be verified through logical argumentation. The author points out that Aquinas introduces the idea of the first, unmovable mover, which is responsible for all of the cause and effect events witnessed today, and investigates what aspects of the world betray the existence of God and why His existence is questioned so readily. The paper relates that Augustine's position is that human beings are positioned so that they can act rightly but that the actions and sins of the past have hindered the path towards God.

From the Paper
"The first sin Augustine characterizes as being like an act of a prisoner who creates false freedom for himself by breaking the rules and intending not to be caught. Obviously, Adam was caught, and all the subsequent sins of man have created a world in which God cannot be found without help; it has become too easy to commit acts of moral evil that those who do so often act out of ignorance. In other words, ignorance of God is not an innate facet of the human condition but is the burden that all human beings carry as a result of past sins."

Tags:mover, path, sins, conception, reasoning

Abstract
This paper discusses Plantinga's restatement of the ontological argument. It also points out the main criticisms to which his version might be subject.