The Ontological Argument for the Existence of God (Development beyond Anselm)

What is it about?

This is the fourth chapter of The Devil’s Advocate vs. God’s Honest Truth: A Dialectical Inquiry into the Rationality of Religion. It is the second of three chapters on the ontological argument for the existence of God. This one focuses on the evolution of the argument beyond Anselm. The scope of coverage is positive rather than negative, thus ignoring the critical reception of the argument, which is the subject matter of the next chapter. The presentation begins with a taxonomic classification of established approaches (section 4.1), followed by a speculative survey of rudimentary versions preceding the original formulation by Anselm (section 4.2). The philosophical pinnacle of positive developments after Saint Anselm is René Descartes (section 4.3), whose rendition of the ontological argument is the center of attraction here. The most familiar part of his argument, fully developed in the course of discussion in the corresponding chapter, can be sketched as follows: (P1) I have a clear and distinct idea of God as a supremely perfect being. (P2) Necessary existence is an integral part of supreme perfection. (C) Therefore, God necessarily exists. The chapter ends with an overview of corrective intervention by Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz (section 4.4), who finds the version by Descartes promising yet incomplete in ways that can easily be fixed, which he diligently shows how to do.

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Photo by Valdemaras D. on Unsplash

Photo by Valdemaras D. on Unsplash