The ontological argument simplified

Analysis 70 (2):210-212 (2010)
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Abstract

The ontological argument in Anselm’s Proslogion II continues to generate a remarkable store of sophisticated commentary and criticism. However, in our opinion, much of this literature ignores or misrepresents the elegant simplicity of the original argument. The dialogue below seeks to restore that simplicity, with one important modification. Like the original, it retains the form of a reductio, which we think is essential to the argument’s great genius. However, it seeks to skirt the difficult question of whether 'exists' is a genuine predicate by appealing instead to a distinction between having only mediated causal powers and having unmediated causal powers. Pegasus has no unmediated causal powers, but he has mediated causal powers through the thoughts, depictions, and literature in which he figures. This distinction allows us to argue about the existence of God without begging any questions.

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Author's Profile

Lynne Rudder Baker
PhD: Vanderbilt University; Last affiliation: University of Massachusetts, Amherst

Citations of this work

Ontological arguments.Graham Oppy - 2014 - Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy.
Updating Anselm Again.Lynne Rudder Baker - 2013 - Res Philosophica 90 (1):23-32.

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References found in this work

Arguing About Gods.Graham Robert Oppy - 2006 - New York: Cambridge University Press.
Ontological arguments and belief in God.Graham Robert Oppy - 1995 - Cambridge UK: Cambridge University Press.
On the logic of the ontological argument.Paul E. Oppenheimer & Edward N. Zalta - 1991 - Philosophical Perspectives 5:509-529.

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