Kant’s ‘Refutation’ of the Ontological Argument

Kant ◽  
1967 ◽  
pp. 189-208 ◽  
Author(s):  
S. Morris Engel
Keyword(s):  
Ontological Argument

Rethinking the Ontological Argument

2006 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daniel A. Dombrowski
Keyword(s):  
Ontological Argument

Waiting for Godo… and Godan: Completing Rowe’s Critique of the Ontological Argument

2017 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 65-86
Author(s):  
Roslyn Weiss
Keyword(s):  
Ontological Argument ◽  
William Rowe

In his critique of Anselm’s ontological argument for God’s existence, William Rowe introduces the concepts of “magico” and “magican”—defining “magicos” as magicians that do not exist, and “magicans” as magicians that do exist—to help diagnose what may have gone wrong in Anselm’s argument. As I made my way through Rowe’s intriguing article, I found myself waiting for “Godo”—and for “Godan.” I expected Rowe to invoke these counterparts to his “magico” and “magican”—a non-existing God to correspond to his non-existing magician, and an existing God to correspond to his existing magician—to complete his argument. Alas, like Vladimir and Estragon, I waited in vain: neither Godo—nor Godan—ever appeared. In what follows I shall argue that their inclusion in Rowe’s argument would have settled the matter against Anselm far more decisively than do Rowe’s forays into the murky waters of question-begging.

Anselm's Formula and the Logic of ‘God’

1973 ◽  
Vol 9 (3) ◽  
pp. 279-288
Author(s):  
Paul M. van Buren
Keyword(s):  
Ontological Argument ◽  
Turn On ◽  
The Difference

Anselm built his meditation Proslogion on the formula ‘that than which nothing greater can be conceived’. The peculiarity of this phrase has been often remarked but not, I believe, fully appreciated. Properly understood, I shall argue, this formula, although unable to support the so-called ontological argument, throws important light on the logic of the religious use of the word ‘God’. My argument will turn on the difference between the two uses of the verb ‘conceive’ in Anselm's claim that we can conceive of that than which nothing greater can be conceived.

On the PROVER9 Ontological Argument

Philosophia ◽  
2015 ◽  
Vol 43 (2) ◽  
pp. 475-483
Author(s):  
T. Parent
Keyword(s):  
Ontological Argument

A Primordial Reply to Modern Gaunilos

1986 ◽  
Vol 22 (1) ◽  
pp. 41-49
Author(s):  
James Patrick Downey
Keyword(s):  
A Priori ◽  
Ontological Argument

Donald R. Gregory has recently argued that the monk Gaunilo's response to St Anselm's ontological argument succeeds in showing what is fundamentally wrong with any ontological argument, including modern modal versions. He holds that the Gaunilo strategy in fact demonstrates what it alleges, that reasoning which parallels the form and intent ofAnselm's reductio argument can ‘prove’ a priori the existence of quite unacceptable entities.

Bering and Kant on a Hundred Actual and Possible Thalers

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-26
Author(s):  
Rogelio Rovira
Keyword(s):  
Ontological Argument ◽  
Ontological Proof

Abstract This paper has three aims. First, to show Kant’s originality in using the celebrated example of the hundred thalers as a criticism of the ontological proof, despite being inspired by a 1780 booklet by Johann Bering. Second, to assess Bering’s and Kant’s different reasons for supporting the truth meant to be illustrated by the case of the thalers. Third, to point out that the debate on the example demands a discussion of the problem of universals. Indeed, the value and scope of Kant’s (and Bering’s) critique of the ontological argument is decisively determined by his position on this problem.

Ontological Argument

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-7
Author(s):  
Kevin J. Harrelson
Keyword(s):  
Ontological Argument

The ontological argument and question-begging

1976 ◽  
Vol 7 (4) ◽  
pp. 425-432 ◽  
Author(s):  
William L. Rowe
Keyword(s):  
Ontological Argument
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