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."
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.
A comparison of 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."
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."
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."
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."
According to W. V. O. Quine, whatever ontology best serves the epistemological role in science merits adoption. This paper looks at the nine essays which appear in his "From a Logical Point of View".
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 "Ca"ster?, we merely replace "river" with "Ca"ster? 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."
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.
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."
Abstract This paper examines how Martin Heidegger, in "Being and Time", examines the existential structures with which Dasein (being) interacts in order to reveal their unification as a structural whole. The paper points out that the phenomenon of 'care' underlies the structural totality of Dasein's being-in-the-world as the fundamental interpretation of itself, through which it is disclosed as being-ahead-of-itself. Furthermore, the state-of-mind of anxiety discloses Dasein's turning away from itself in its 'fallenness' into the world, only to turn back toward itself to realize the possibility of authentic being, as opposed to the inauthentic being provided by the everyday interpretation of Dasein. The primordial interpretation of Dasein's being as care allows the primary differentiation of possibilities, which are enacted through a care structure that both underlies and inhabits existence, facticity and 'fallenness'. The paper concludes that these existential structures are unified through the care structure to delimit an essential definition of the basic state of that entity to which Being is an issue.
From the Paper "The phenomenon of 'care' underlies the structural totality of Dasein's Being-in-the-world as the fundamental interpretation of itself, through which it is disclosed as being-ahead-of-itself. Martin Heidegger, in Being and Time, examines the existential structures that Dasein, as that entity to which its Being is an issue, interacts with to reveal their unification as a structural whole, within which Dasein manifests as a Being-possible. The state-of-mind of anxiety discloses Dasein's turning away from itself in its 'fallenness' into the world, only to turn back toward itself to realize the possibility of authentic Being, as opposed to the inauthentic Being provided by the everyday interpretation of Dasein. The actualization of any possibilities requires that Dasein exist ahead-of-itself in projecting its Being into those possibilities. The primordial interpretation of Dasein's Being as care allows the primary differentiation of possibilities, which are enacted through a care structure that both underlies and inhabits existence, facticity and 'fallenness'. These existential structures are unified through the care structure to delimit an essential definition of the basic state of that entity to which Being is an issue."
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 ... "
This paper is an in-depth study of the Quine-Duhem thesis which denies that the disconfirmation of a theory can be forced upon a practitioner by the evidence itself.
Abstract This paper examines the Quine-Duhem thesis, exploring what it tells us about the nature of knowledge. The author gives the reader background on Quine and Duhem's own thinking in order to lay the foundation for their joint work. The author looks at different theories presented in physics by Newton and then discusses Popper's theory on falsification. The author then looks at issues concerning ontology and the related issues of logic. At each of these stages the author uses examples from the Quine-Duhem thesis to show differences and in some cases to refute the theory being discussed. According to the author, the Quine-Duhem thesis tells us that what we know about the philosophy of science, is dependent on what we are willing to acknowledge that we do not know, and the great question for science thus shifts from one that is entirely ontological to one that is at the heart of our humanity.
From the Paper "Whether the false prediction resulted from the falsity of the tested hypothesis or the falsity of some other one or more of the auxiliary assumptions is not known. However, according to the Quine-Duhem thesis, it is in fact possible by suitable modification or buttressing of the proper auxiliary hypotheses to save any theory from potential refutation. Furthermore, it is often claimed that historical research shows that scientists do frequently do precisely this. (This need not be, it is probably obvious but may be worth pointing out, the kind of behavior that we consider to be fraud or scientific dishonesty, but rather may lie well within the margin of error of interpretation and observation. Hence it would seem that, to deny to Popper everything that he has ever seemingly believed in, theories cannot be definitively refuted any more than they can be confirmed (Carnap, 1956, p. 71)."
Abstract This paper discusses the ontological argument, mainly as seen through the eyes of two philosophers"St. Anselm and Immanuel Kant"to examine the significance of this argument in proving that God exists. The paper defines an ontological argument as an argument intended to show that God exists without actually showing any real proof.
From the Paper "Many of the well-known arguments for God's existence depend upon at least one empirical premise. For example, the design argument relies on empirical evidence of intelligent design, stating that life could not have developed had certain basic properties of the universe differed from what they are (Himma, 2001). In addition, cosmological arguments depend on certain empirical statements about the explanation for the occurrence of various events. The ontological arguments are different than most arguments for God's existence, as they aim to show that we can deduce God's existence from the very definition of God, without relying on any type of empirical premise."
Abstract This paper explains that all the great philosophers, from the ancients to the moderns, proposed and developed the concept of God. The author points out that the ontological arguments seek to establish the existence of God on the basis of logic. The paper relates that the most common and ancient among all the traditional classical arguments is the teleological argument, which attempts to prove the existence of God within the systematization of universe.
From the Paper "There was a shortcoming in the view of Descartes which was sorted out through an attempt of Gottfried Leibniz. Leibniz argues that the arguments of Descartes are not perfect as it has not been shown that the concept of the being which is Supreme and perfect is coherent, or that it is possible for a supremely perfect being to exist. He then argued that perfections cannot be analysed and thus it cannot be shown that perfections are not compatible, and this led him to conclude that all the perfections can exist simultaneously in one entity. The arguments of St. Anselm, Descartes and Leibniz have interesting connections to the recent arguments of Godel, Plantinga and Malcolm. Among these, the most interesting are the arguments of Godel and Plantinga. At the same time, it is difficult to say whether the claims of these authors really lead to any further proofs of the prevalence of God."
Abstract This paper discusses the theory of Being as presented by Heidegger in his book "Being and Time" (1927). The ontological priority given to the concept of Dasein accrues from the importance that Heidegger attached to it. He felt that it was the Being-there, which should be studied in order to understand the Being itself.
From the Paper ?Martin Heidegger was a great German philosopher of the early twentieth century. He gave us some valuable concepts which are though important to the world of euphemism are still very complex to comprehend completely. I believe that a lot of confusion that we face today while trying to understand his work accrue partially from his work actually being complex and partly from the fact that German language has some terminologies which we are not able to grasp fully unless we are familiar with that language.?
Tags: being, ontology, knowledge, existence, logic, live
Abstract The writer of this paper shows how Anselm (1033-1109), philosopher, theologian and church leader presented an argument for the existence of God that has been debated by philosophers and academicians for centuries. The paper shows that from the beginning, Anselm's argument has been met with criticism, appreciation and interest by philosophers such as Kant, Descartes and Spinoza. The writer is of the opinion that, after studying the argument, although interesting, it has certain basic flaws, which he attempts to bring out in this paper.
From the Paper "While analyzing Anselm's argument and focusing on its weaknesses, the obvious question arises: Why has the argument fascinated so many philosophers over the years, if it was such a weak argument? The answer probably is that it is difficult to prove Anselm's argument wrong logically. Even Kant's argument that ? existence is not a predicate? has been challenged by others who have argued that there are senses in which existence is a predicate. So the controversy of and fascination with Anselm's argument is far from over and is likely to continue."
Tags: Book, on, Behalf, of, the, Fool, Lost, Island, Proslogium, Gaunilo, Liebniz, RAA
