PHIL101 Forum Week 5 - Grade: A PDF

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Q: With reference to Anselm's Ontological Argument for the existence of God, evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of his argument....

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With reference to Anselm's Ontological Argument for the existence of God, evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of his argument.

The Ontological Argument is an argument for the existence of God, it attempts to show that if you reflect properly on the nature of God you will find that He must exist. One of the strengths of Anselm’s argument is showing that the concept of God is not illogical, though explaining that everyone, even a non-believer must have a concept of God in the mind and because of this have a concept of God existing. His argument succeeds as it is clearly coming to the conclusions that can be drawn from it, this leaves the argument with only one answer; God exists. Because of its a priori nature It also offers an actual proof for God’s existence which can be logically debated rather than relying on changeable evidence. One of the main weaknesses in his argument is posed by Gaunilo of Marmoutier, a contemporary of Anselm, Gaunilo posed, using reductio ad absurdum, that if the logic of the argument were applied to anything other than God, its conclusion would be unreasonable. The analogy of a perfect island was formulated and using the same argument as Anselm reasoned that as the perfect island could be thought of, then it also must exist. Although Gainilo’s perfect island does have flaws itself as it pointed out by Rowe “if we follow Anselm’s reasoning exactly, it does not appear that we can derive an absurdity from the supposition that the island than which none greater is possible does not exist.”...