Strengths and weaknesses of Anselm’s Ontological argument
Kant’s criticisms
Existence is not a predicate:
Both Anselm and Descartes view God as being with every perfection including that of
existence. But for Kant, existence is not a predicate. It adds nothing to our understanding of
the concept of God.
Schopenhauer:
Claimed the ontological argument was a slight of hand trick
Overview of strengths and weaknesses:
Strengths :
Deductive
Doesn't depend on human observation
Not an argument but an expression of faith, thus valuable to religious believers.
Not unreasonable for religious believers
Weaknesses:
Issues with the definition of God
Problem of evil
Not based on observation
Doesn't actually work deductively
Schopenhauer- does it actually tell us anything
Kant’s criticisms
Existence is not a predicate:
Both Anselm and Descartes view God as being with every perfection including that of
existence. But for Kant, existence is not a predicate. It adds nothing to our understanding of
the concept of God.
Schopenhauer:
Claimed the ontological argument was a slight of hand trick
Overview of strengths and weaknesses:
Strengths :
Deductive
Doesn't depend on human observation
Not an argument but an expression of faith, thus valuable to religious believers.
Not unreasonable for religious believers
Weaknesses:
Issues with the definition of God
Problem of evil
Not based on observation
Doesn't actually work deductively
Schopenhauer- does it actually tell us anything
