Arguments for God
Philosophy 020E/1
September 28, 1999
St. Anselm
St. Thomas
Wm. Paley
First question from last week
Peirce a relativist?
Short answer
No
Scientific imperialism
Truth & Reality
Public
World community
Second question
Peirce on justice
Morality
Folklore of what to do
Traditional wisdom of the ages
Like manners
Essentially conservative
Peirce on truth & reality
Explain truth & reality as objectivity
Explain objectivity as
What the community would think
Were it as knowledgeable as it could be
Reality is
What makes objective beliefs true
Moral objectivity
What the community would do
Were it as informed as it could be
Third question
Plato’s cave
Justice
Ideal
Absolute
Eternal
Like mathematical reality
Contemplation
Vision
St. Anselm
1033-1109
Born in Italy
Archbishop of Canterbury
Ontological Argument for
God’s existence
God defined
That being than which
None greater can be
Conceived
Type of argument
Reductio ad absurdum
Assume conclusion false
Show that that is
Impossible
The fool
The atheist says
God does not exist
Cannot fully understand
What he is saying
Two kinds of understanding
Verbal
Know what all the words signify
Real
Understand the thing itself
That the words signify
Faith before reason
Person acquainted with God
Knows that
He must exist
Standard objection
Begs the question or invalid
Begs question if God assumed
Then existence asserted
Invalid if God not assumed
Conclusion then conditional
How argument should look
If God exists, then he is that . . .
Assume God does not exist
Then possible to conceive of . . .
But it is not possible to conceive of . . .
So if God exists, then it is not true that
God does not exist
So if God exists, then God exists