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Essay / The Existence of God - 860
The ontological argument aims to prove the existence of God as an a priori argument. One of the distinctive features of Descartes' argument is its simplicity. The argument is deductive and based on reason alone and does not require any physical proof of God, it attempts to prove the existence of God in an objective and necessary way. There are some statements that we know to be false without any other information, such as "a circle has 3 sides" or "she is single", these statements are false by definition. The ontological argument aims to make the statement "God does not exist" as absurd and false as the above statements, and for "God exists" to be an analytical truth, it is therefore logically impossible for it not to be the case. Descartes' background in mathematics is very influential on his version of the ontological argument, attempting to make philosophy more objective and confirmable like mathematics. Additionally, Descartes believed that every human being has an innate and clear understanding of God that we are born with, this is important because we can form a definition of God. the universe outside of my thought on such a figure, it nevertheless remains true that this figure has a certain determinate nature, form or essence, which is immutable and eternal, and not framed by me, nor dependent in any way on my thought "- Descartes (Meditations)Descartes' definition of God is a "supremely perfect being", a being with ALL perfections. He simply seeks to establish the existence of God through this definition. As does the necessary existence ( eternal) is a perfection, a supremely perfect being must necessarily exist If you are asked, would you rather have a £10 note in the middle of a sheet of paper...... o this objection that the. existence is not a true predicate could be that necessary existence is a true predicate because it tells you about the subject and is, arguably, "a property that a thing may or may not possess Existence". necessary tells us something real and significant about the subject, in this case God. Necessary existence implies an eternal and unlimited existence outside the limits of space and time, an existence not dependent on anything else. While one could argue that existence is not a true predicate since existence is only the actualization of a definition in reality, it does not inform us on the subject. An imaginary unicorn looks like an existing unicorn, so existence is not a true predicate. However, Descartes refers to necessary existence in his argument and not just existence. Kant's objection can therefore be seen as irrelevant to the argument..