Ontological argument

High school (ages 12+)
Philosophy & Big Questions

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Date:

Step 1 · Read the article

Open the article and read it at the level above. Then answer the questions below in your own words.

https://smallwhale.org/articles/ontological-argument

Write what each word means, using the article.

Do not copy the article. Write two things you learned, the way you would explain them to a friend.

Answers below are taken from the article’s stored facts, so they match what the student read.

1. What is the argument type?A priori, deductive philosophical argument for the existence of God
2. What is the primary proponents?Saint Anselm of Canterbury, René Descartes, Gottfried Leibniz, Kurt Gödel, Alvin Plantinga
3. Why did Saint Anselm say God must exist?He said that if we can think of a being that is the greatest possible, then that being has to exist, because existence is part of being the greatest.
4. How did Descartes and Leibniz add to Anselm's idea?Descartes said that a perfect being must exist because perfection includes existence, and Leibniz argued that if a perfect being is logically possible, it must exist.

A priori: Knowledge or justification independent of experience; derived from reason alone.
Predicate: A term or concept that describes or attributes a quality to a subject.
Modal Logic: A type of logic that deals with necessity, possibility, and contingency.
Metaphysics: The branch of philosophy that examines the fundamental nature of reality.