Tilted Forum Project Discussion Community - View Single Post - Questioning Anselm's Ontological Arugment

lurkette · 09-08-2003, 02:34 PM

Various philosophers' reactions to Anselm's argument.
http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/basis...m-critics.html

Mathematical deconstruction of Anselm:
http://brindedcow.umd.edu/236/anselm.html

And the best one yet:
http://www.uq.edu.au/philosophy/dsm/mannisongod.html#oa

Basically, Anselm's argument is a tautology. His argument presupposes the existence of that the existence of which he's trying to prove (how's that for an Anselm-ism!) and the argument basically breaks down to "If God exists, then God exists." Not terribly compelling.

09-08-2003, 02:34 PM	#2 (permalink)
lurkette My future is coming on Moderator Emeritus Location: east of the sun and west of the moon	Various philosophers' reactions to Anselm's argument. http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/basis...m-critics.html Mathematical deconstruction of Anselm: http://brindedcow.umd.edu/236/anselm.html And the best one yet: http://www.uq.edu.au/philosophy/dsm/mannisongod.html#oa Basically, Anselm's argument is a tautology. His argument presupposes the existence of that the existence of which he's trying to prove (how's that for an Anselm-ism!) and the argument basically breaks down to "If God exists, then God exists." Not terribly compelling. __________________ "If ten million people believe a foolish thing, it is still a foolish thing." - Anatole France