Element contents
Ontological Arguments
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 06 November 2020
Summary
Proving the existence of God is a perennial philosophical ambition. An armchair proof would be the jackpot. Ontological arguments promise as much. This Element studies the most famous ontological arguments from Anselm, Descartes, Plantinga, and others besides. While the verdict is that ontological arguments don't work, they get us entangled in fun philosophical puzzles, from philosophy of religion to philosophy of language, from metaphysics to ethics, and beyond.
Information
- Type
- Element
- Information
- Online ISBN: 9781108686990Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication: 03 December 2020
References
Adams, Robert Merrihew (1994). Leibniz: Determinist, Theist, Idealist. New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Anselm (2001). Proslogion: With the Replies of Gaunilo and Anselm, Thomas Williams (trans.). Indianapolis: Hackett.Google Scholar
Antognazza, Maria Rosa (2018). “Leibniz.” In Oppy, Graham (ed.), Ontological Arguments. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 75–98.Google Scholar
Aquinas, Thomas. (2014). Aquinas: Basic Works, Hause, Jeffrey & Pasnau, Robert (eds.). Indianapolis: Hackett.Google Scholar
Arbour, Benjamin (2019). “Dogmatic Open-Mindedness and Open-Minded Dogmatics.” In Trickett, Gregory & Gilhooly, John (eds.), Open-Mindedness in Philosophy of Religion. Newcastle upon Tyne: Cambridge Scholars, 76–99.Google Scholar
Arbour, Benjamin (n.d.). “Preserving Anselmian Monotheism: A Reply to Nagasawa.” Unpublished manuscript.Google Scholar
Benacerraf, Paul (1965). “What Numbers Could Not Be,” Philosophical Review 74 (1): 47–73.Google Scholar
Bencivenga, Ermanno (1993). Logic and Other Nonsense: The Case of Anselm and His God. Princeton: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Bernstein, C’Zar (2014). “Giving the Ontological Argument Its Due,” Philosophia 42 (3): 665–79.Google Scholar
Burns, Elizabeth (2018). “The Ontological Argument: Patching Plantinga’s Ontological Argument by Making the Murdoch Move.” In Dougherty, Trent & Walls, Jerry (eds.), Two Dozen (or So) Arguments for God: The Plantinga Project. New York: Oxford University Press, 123–36.Google Scholar
Brown, James Robert (2012). Platonism, Naturalism, and Mathematical Knowledge. New York: Routledge.Google Scholar
Byerly, Ryan (2010). The Ontomystical Argument Revisited. International Journal for Philosophy of Religion 67 (2): 95–105.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Campbell, Richard (2018). Rethinking Anselm’s Argument: A Vindication of his Proof of the Existence of God. Leiden: Brill.Google Scholar
Cartwright, Nancy (2019). Nature, the Artful Modeler: Lectures on Laws, Science, How Nature Arranges the World, and How We Can Arrange It Better. Chicago: Open Court.Google Scholar
Chambers, Timothy (2000). “On Behalf of the Devil: A parody of Anselm Revisited,” Proceedings of the Aristotelian Society 100 (1): 93–113.Google Scholar
Chandler, Hugh (1976). “Plantinga and the Contingently Possible,” Analysis, 36 (2): 106–9.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Coggins, Geraldine (2010). Could There Have Been Nothing? Against Metaphysical Nihilism. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.Google Scholar
Collins, Robin (2018). “The Argument from Physical Constants: The Fine-Tuning for Discoverability.” In Dougherty, Trent & Walls, Jerry (eds.), Two Dozen (or So) Arguments for God: The Plantinga Project. New York: Oxford University Press, 89–107.Google Scholar
Conee, Earl (2013). “Conceiving Absolute Greatness.” In Goldschmidt, Tyron (ed.), The Puzzle of Existence: Why Is There Something Rather Than Nothing? New York: Routledge, 110–27.Google Scholar
Conee, Earl (2005). “Why Not Nothing?” In Conee, Earl & Sider, Ted, Riddles of Existence: A Guided Tour of Metaphysics. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Craig, William Lane (2018). “The Kalam Cosmological Argument.” In Dougherty, Trent & Walls, Jerry (eds.), Two Dozen (or So) Arguments for God: The Plantinga Project. New York: Oxford University Press, 389–405.Google Scholar
Craig, William Lane (2016). God over All: Divine Aseity and the Challenge of Platonism. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Dennett, Daniel (2006). Breaking the Spell: Religion as a Natural Phenomenon. New York: Penguin.Google Scholar
Descartes, René (1986). Meditations on First Philosophy: With Selections from the Objections and Replies. John Cottingham (trans.). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Descartes, René (1984). The Philosophical Writings of Descartes: Volume II. John Cottingham, Robert Stoothoff, & Dugald Murdoch (trans.). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Dicker, Georges (2013). Descartes: An Analytical and Historical Introduction (2nd ed.). Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Efird, David, & Stoneham, Tom (2006). “Combinatorialism and the Possibility of Nothing,” Australasian Journal of Philosophy 84 (2): 269–80.Google Scholar
Francks, Richard (2008). Descartes’s Meditations: A Reader’s Guide. New York: Continuum.Google Scholar
Frege, Gottlob (1960). The Foundations of Arithmetic. J. L. Austin (trans.). New York: Harper.Google Scholar
Gale, Richard (1991). On the Nature and Existence of God. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Gellman, Jerome (1997). Experience of God and the Rationality of Theistic Belief. Ithaca: Cornell University Press.Google Scholar
Goldschmidt, Tyron (forthcoming). “Ontological Soufflé,” Ratio.Google Scholar
Goldschmidt, Tyron (2019). “A Proof of Exodus: Yehuda HaLevi and Jonathan Edwards Walk Into a Bar.” In Lebens, Samuel, Rabinowitz, Dani, & Segal, Aaron (eds.), Jewish Philosophy in an Analytic Age. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 222–42.Google Scholar
Goldschmidt, Tyron (2018). “The Argument From Numbers’. In Dougherty, Trent & Walls, Jerry (eds.), Two Dozen (or So) Arguments for God: The Plantinga Project. New York:Oxford University Press, 59–75.Google Scholar
Gould, Paul (2014). Beyond the Control of God? Six Views on the Problem of God and Abstract Objects. New York: Bloomsbury.Google Scholar
Hoffman, Joshua, & Rosenkrantz, Gary (2002). The Divine Attributes. New York: Wiley-Blackwell.Google Scholar
Huemer, Michael (2009). “When Is Parsimony a Virtue?,” Philosophical Quarterly 59 (235): 216–36.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hume, David (1998). Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion. Popkin, Richard (ed.). Indianapolis: Hackett.Google Scholar
Kant, Immanuel (1998). Critique of Pure Reason. Paul Guyer & Allen Wood (trans.).Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Kraay, Klaas (2010). “Theism, Possible Worlds, and the Multiverse,” Philosophical Studies 147 (3): 355–68.Google Scholar
Kwan, Kai-man (2009). “The Argument from Religious Experience.” In Craig, William Lane & Moreland, J. P. (eds.), The Blackwell Companion to Natural Theology. Oxford: Blackwell, 498–552.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Leftow, Brian (2018). “Aquinas” In Oppy, Graham (ed.), Ontological Arguments. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 44–52.Google Scholar
Leftow, Brian (1988). “Anselmian Polytheism,” International Journal for Philosophy of Religion 23 (2): 77–104Google Scholar
Logan, Ian (2008). Reading Anselm’s Proslogion: The History of Anselm’s Argument and Its Significance Today. London: Ashgate.Google Scholar
Lowe, E. J. (2013). “The Ontological Argument.” In Meister, Chad & Copan, Paul (eds.), The Routledge Companion to Philosophy of Religion. New York: Routledge, 391–400.Google Scholar
Lowe, E. J. (2012). “A New Modal Version of the Ontological Argument.” In Szatkowski, Mirosaw (ed.), Ontological Proofs Today. Frankfurt: Ontos Verlag, 179–91.Google Scholar
Lowe, E. J. (1998). The Possibility of Metaphysics: Substance, Identity, and Time. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Malcolm, Norman (1960). “Anselm’s Ontological Arguments,” Philosophical Review 69 (1): 41–62.Google Scholar
Marek, Johann (2019). “Alexius Meinong,” Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/meinong/Google Scholar
Matthews, Gareth, & Baker, Lynne Rudder (2010). “The Ontological Argument Simplified,” Analysis 70 (2): 210–12.Google Scholar
Matthews, Gareth, & Baker, Lynne Rudder (2011). “Reply to Oppy’s Fool,” Analysis 71(2): 303.Google Scholar
Mavrodes, George (1963). “Some Puzzles Concerning Omnipotence,” Philosophical Review 72 (2): 221–23.Google Scholar
Maydole, Robert (2009). “The Ontological Argument.” In Craig, William Lane & Moreland, J. P. (eds.), The Blackwell Companion to Natural Theology. Oxford: Blackwell, 553–92.Google Scholar
McGinnis, Jon (2011). “The Ultimate Why Question: Avicenna on Why God Is Absolutely Necessary.” In Wippel, John (ed.), The Ultimate Why Question: Why Is There Anything at All Rather Than Nothing Whatsoever? Washington: Catholic University of America Press, 65–83.Google Scholar
Millican, Peter (2004). “The One Fatal Flaw in Anselm’s Argument,” Mind 113 (451): 437–76.Google Scholar
Millican, Peter (2007). “Ontological Arguments and the Superiority of Existence: Reply to Nagasawa,” Mind 116 (464): 1041–105.Google Scholar
Miravalle, John-Mark (2018). God, Existence, and Fictional Objects: The Case for Meinongian Theism. New York: Bloomsbury Academic.Google Scholar
Morris, Thomas (1987). Anselmian Explorations: Essays in Philosophical Theology. Notre Dame: University of Notre Dame Press.Google Scholar
Morriston, Wes (2001). “Omnipotence and Necessary Moral Perfection: Are They Compatible?,” Religious Studies 37 (2): 143–60.Google Scholar
Nagasawa, Yujin (2017). Maximal God: A New Defence of Perfect Being Theism. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Nagasawa, Yujin (2007). “Millican on the Ontological Argument,” Mind 116 (464): 1027–39.Google Scholar
Naylor van Inwagen, Margery (1969). Descartes’ Three Versions of the Ontological Argument. Unpublished doctoral dissertation, University of Rochester, Rochester, NY.Google Scholar
Nolan, Lawrence (2018). “Descartes.” In Oppy, Graham (ed.), Ontological Arguments. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 53–74.Google Scholar
O’Connor, Timothy (2008). Theism and Ultimate Explanation: The Necessary Shape of Contingency. Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell.Google Scholar
Oppy, Graham (ed.) (2018). Ontological Arguments. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Oppy, Graham (2018). “Introduction: Ontological Arguments in Focus.” In Oppy, Graham (ed.), Ontological Arguments. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1–18.Google Scholar
Oppy, Graham (2011). “Objection to a Simplified Ontological Argument,” Analysis 71(1): 105–6.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Oppy, Graham (2009). “Pruss’s Ontological Arguments,” Religious Studies 45 (3): 355–63.Google Scholar
Oppy, Graham (1995). Ontological Arguments and Belief in God. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Pearce, Kenneth (2017). “Foundational Grounding and the Argument from Contingency,” Oxford Studies in Philosophy of Religion 8.Google Scholar
Plantinga, Alvin (2007). “Two Dozen (or So) Theistic Arguments.” In Baker, Deane-Peter (ed.), Alvin Plantinga. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 203–28.Google Scholar
Poston, Ted (2018). “The Argument from (A) to (Y): The Argument from So Many Arguments.” In Dougherty, Trent & Walls, Jerry (eds.), Two Dozen (or So) Arguments for God: The Plantinga Project. New York: Oxford University Press, 372–86.Google Scholar
Priest, Graham (2018). “Characterization, Existence and Necessity.” In Oppy, Graham (ed.), Ontological Arguments. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 250–69.Google Scholar
Pruss, Alexander (2018). “Gödel.” In Oppy, Graham (ed.), Ontological Arguments. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 139–54.Google Scholar
Pruss, Alexander (2009). “The Leibnizian Cosmological Argument.” In Craig, William Lane & Moreland, J. P. (eds.), The Blackwell Companion to Natural Theology. Oxford: Blackwell, 24–100.Google Scholar
Pruss, Alexander (2006). The Principle of Sufficient Reason: A Reassessment. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Pruss, Alexander (2001). “Śamkara’s Principle and Two Ontomystical Arguments,” International Journal for Philosophy of Religion 49 (2): 111–20.Google Scholar
Pruss, Alexander, & Rasmussen, Joshua (2018). Necessary Existence. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Rasmussen, Joshua (2018). “Plantinga.” In Oppy, Graham (ed.), Ontological Arguments. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 176–94.Google Scholar
Reicher, Maria (2019). “Nonexistent Objects,” Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/nonexistent-objects/Google Scholar
Rizvi, Sajjad (2019). “Mulla Sadra,” Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/mulla-sadra/Google Scholar
Rowe, William (2009). “Alvin Plantinga on the Ontological Argument,” International Journal for Philosophy of Religion 65 (2), 87–92.Google Scholar
Rowe, William (1987). “Modal Versions of the Ontological Argument.” In Pojman, Louis (ed.), Philosophy of Religion: An Anthology. Wadsworth: Balmont, 69–73.Google Scholar
Rowe, William (1976). “The Ontological Argument and Question-Begging,” International Journal for Philosophy of Religion 7 (4): 425–32.Google Scholar
Schneider, Susan (2017). “Idealism, or Something Near Enough.” In Goldschmidt, Tyron & Pearce, Kenneth (eds.), Idealism: New Essays in Metaphysics. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 275–89.Google Scholar
Scotus, Duns (1962). Philosophical Writings. Allan Wolter (trans.). Indianapolis: Bobbs-Merrill.Google Scholar
Sinnott-Armstrong, Walter (1999). “Begging the Question,” Australasian Journal of Philosophy 77 (2): 174–91.Google Scholar
Sobel, Jordan Howard (2004). Logic and Theism: Arguments for and against Belief in God. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Sorensen, Roy (1991). “‘P, therefore, P’ without Circularity,” Journal of Philosophy 88 (5): 245–66.Google Scholar
Stang, Nicholas (2015). “Kant’s Argument That Existence Is Not a Determination,” Philosophy and Phenomenological Research 91 (1): 583–626.Google Scholar
Steiner, Mark (1998). The Applicability of Mathematics as a Philosophical Problem. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Street, Sharon (2006). “A Darwinian Dilemma for Realist Theories of Value,” Philosophical Studies 127 (1):109–66.Google Scholar
Swinburne, Richard (2016). The Coherence of Theism (2nd ed.). Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Swinburne, Richard (2012). “What Kind of Necessary Being Could God Be?” In Szatkowski, Mirosaw (ed.), Ontological Proofs Today. Frankfurt: Ontos Verlag, 345–63.Google Scholar
Swinburne, Richard (2004). The Existence of God (2nd ed.). Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Thomasson, Amie (1998). Fiction and Metaphysics. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Van Inwagen, Peter (2018). “Begging the Question.” In Oppy, Graham (ed.), Ontological Arguments. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 238–49.Google Scholar
Van Inwagen, Peter (2012). “Three Versions of the Ontological Argument.” In Szatkowski, Mirosaw (ed.), Ontological Proofs Today. Frankfurt: Ontos Verlag, 143–62.Google Scholar
Van Inwagen, Peter (2009). “Some Remarks on Modal Ontological Arguments,” Philo 12 (2): 217–27.Google Scholar
Van Inwagen, Peter (2001). “Existence, Ontological Commitment, and Fictional Entities.” In Loux, Michael & Zimmerman, Dean (eds.), The Oxford Handbook of Metaphysics. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 131–57.Google Scholar
Weiss, Roslyn (2017). “Waiting for Godo … and Godan: Completing Rowe’s Critique of the Ontological Argument,” European Journal for Philosophy of Religion 9 (1): 65–86.Google Scholar
Wigner, Eugene (1960). “The Unreasonable Effectiveness of Mathematics in the Natural Sciences,” Communications in Pure and Applied Mathematics 13: 1–14.Google Scholar
Wilson, Catherine (2003). Descartes’s Meditations: An Introduction. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Accessibility standard: Unknown
Why this information is here
This section outlines the accessibility features of this content - including support for screen readers, full keyboard navigation and high-contrast display options. This may not be relevant for you.Accessibility Information
Accessibility compliance for the HTML of this element is currently unknown
and may be updated in the future.
- 15
- Cited by