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An ontological argument is a philosophical argument for the existence of God that uses ontology. Many arguments fall under the category of the ontological, and they tend to involve arguments about the state of being or existing. More specifically, ontological arguments tend to start with an a priori theory about the organization of the universe. If that organizational structure is true, the argument will provide reasons why God must exist. The first ontological argument in the Western Christian tradition was proposed by Anselm of Canterbury in his 1078 work ''Proslogion''. Anselm defined God as "that than which nothing greater can be conceived", and argued that this being must exist in the mind; even in the mind of the person who denies the existence of God. He suggested that, if the greatest possible being exists in the mind, it must also exist in reality. If it only exists in the mind, then an even greater being must be possible — one which exists both in the mind and in reality. Therefore, this greatest possible being must exist in reality. Seventeenth century French philosopher René Descartes deployed a similar argument. Descartes published several variations of his argument, each of which centred on the idea that God's existence is immediately inferable from a "clear and distinct" idea of a supremely perfect being. In the early eighteenth century, Gottfried Leibniz augmented Descartes' ideas in an attempt to prove that a "supremely perfect" being is a coherent concept. A more recent ontological argument came from Kurt Gödel, who proposed a formal argument for God's existence. Norman Malcolm revived the ontological argument in 1960 when he located a second, stronger ontological argument in Anselm's work; Alvin Plantinga challenged this argument and proposed an alternative, based on modal logic. Attempts have also been made to validate Anselm's proof using an automated theorem prover. Other arguments have been categorised as ontological, including those made by Islamic philosopher Mulla Sadra. The first critic of the ontological argument was Anselm's contemporary, Gaunilo of Marmoutiers. He used the analogy of a perfect island, suggesting that the ontological argument could be used to prove the existence of anything. This was the first of many parodies, all of which attempted to show that the argument has absurd consequences. Later, Thomas Aquinas rejected the argument on the basis that humans cannot know God's nature. Also, David Hume offered an empirical objection, criticising its lack of evidential reasoning and rejecting the idea that anything can exist necessarily. Immanuel Kant's critique was based on what he saw as the false premise that existence is a predicate. He argued that "existing" adds nothing (including perfection) to the essence of a being, and thus a "supremely perfect" being can be conceived not to exist. Finally, philosophers including C. D. Broad dismissed the coherence of a maximally great being, proposing that some attributes of greatness are incompatible with others, rendering "maximally great being" incoherent. ==Classification== The traditional definition of an ontological argument was given by Immanuel Kant. He contrasted the ontological argument (literally any argument "concerned with being") with the cosmological and physio-theoretical arguments. According to the Kantian view, ontological arguments are those founded on ''a priori'' reasoning.〔 Graham Oppy, who elsewhere expressed the view that he "see() no urgent reason" to depart from the traditional definition,〔 defined ontological arguments as those that begin with "nothing but analytic, a priori and necessary premises" and conclude that God exists. Oppy admitted, however, that not all of the "traditional characteristics" of an ontological argument (analyticity, necessity, and a priority) are found in all ontological arguments and, in his 2007 work ''Ontological Arguments and Belief in God'', suggested that a better definition of an ontological argument would employ only considerations "entirely internal to the theistic worldview".〔 Oppy subclassified ontological arguments into definitional, conceptual (or hyperintensional), modal, Meinongian, experiential, mereological, higher-order, or Hegelian categories, based on the qualities of their premises.〔 He defined these qualities as follows: definitional arguments invoke definitions; conceptual arguments invoke "the possession of certain kinds of ideas or concepts"; modal arguments consider possibilities; Meinongian arguments assert "a distinction between different categories of existence"; experiential arguments employ the idea that God exists solely to those who have had experience of him; and Hegelian arguments are from Hegel.〔 He later categorised mereological as arguments that "draw on… the theory of the whole-part relation". William Lane Craig criticised Oppy's study as too vague for useful classification. Craig argued that an argument can be classified as ontological if it attempts to deduce the existence of God, along with other necessary truths, from his definition. He suggested that proponents of ontological arguments would claim that, if one fully understood the concept of God, one must accept his existence. William L. Rowe defined ontological arguments as those that start from the definition of God and, using only a priori principles, conclude with God's existence. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Ontological argument」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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