Descartes and the Ontological

Argument
or
A brief history of essence and
existence

Anselm 1033-1109
Sets out to refute the fool of Psalms
Fools say in their hearts, There is no
God.(NRSV Ps 14:1)
The Fool understands the claim that God
exists
The Fool does not believe that God exists
Anselm. Guanilio, trans Williams, T. (2001) Proslogion: with the replies of Guanilio and
Anselm. Great Britain: Hackett Publishing
Aquinas T. (1947) Summa Theologica trans Fathers of the English Dominican Province.

Montaigne 1533-1592
Essais (1580)
I pitied the poor people that were imposed upon
by these fooleries;
and now I find that I myself was to be pitied as
much at least as they (1811:210)
Qui nis sunt veri, ratio quoque falsa sit omnis
Which if not true, evn reason must be
false(:316)
Michael de Montaigne (1811) The Essays of Michael de Montaigne Volume 1.trans: Pierre
Coste Charles Cotton. 9th ed. London: C Baldwin, New Bridge-street

Descartes (1596-1650)
Meditations (1641)
Fifth Meditation
God is the most perfect being conceivable
It is more perfect to exist than not to exist
Therefore God exists

Descartes, R. (1972) trans Anscombe, E. Geach, P.T. Philosophical Writings. Great

Britain: Open University Press

Bertrand Russell (1872-1970)

Great God in boots, the ontological
argument is sound.(Russell 1997:10)
The argument does not, to a modern
mind, seem very convincing, but it is
easier to feel convinced that it must be
fallacious than it is to find out precisely
where the fallacy lies.(Russell 2004:536)
Russell B. (1997) The collected papers of Bertrand Russell Last Philosophical
Testament, 1947-68. Great Britain: Routledge
Russell, B. (2004) History of western philosophy 2nd Edition. Great Britain:
Routledge.

Refutation (1905)
Existence is a quantifier not a predicate.
x[(Gx & y(Gy x=y)) & Bx]
x[Dx & Ax] (Russell Mind:1905)

"God exists" means "there is one (and

only one) x such that x is omnipotent,
omniscient, etc. is true.
Russell, B. (2005) Mind:On Denoting. 114:873-887;doi:10.1093/mind/fzi873

Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy [online]

http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/descartes-ontological/

Schopenhauer (1788-1860)
this famous Ontological Proof is really a
charming joke 1813 (1889:12)
All depends upon the source whence you
derived your conception; if it be taken from
experience, all well and good, for in this case its
object exists and needs no further proof; if, on
the contrary, it has been hatched in your own
sinciput, all its predicates are of no avail, for it is
a mere phantasm.(1889:13)
Schopenhauer, A. (1889) On the Fourfold Root of the Principle of Sufficient
Reason, and on the Will in Nature; Two Essays (Trans Mme Hillebrand, K.)
London: G. Bell and sons.

Kant (1724-1804)
Being is obviously not a real predicate;
it is merely the copula of a judgement.
A hundred real thalers do not contain the
least coin more than a hundred possible
thalers (1781)(Kant. 2007:505)
Kant, I. (2005) trans Meiklejohn, J. M. D. The Critique of Pure Reason. Great
Britain: NuVision Publications, LLC

Pierre Gassendi (1592-1655)

Existence is a perfection neither in God
nor in anything else; it is rather that in the
absence of which there is no perfection
(1642)
Descartes, R. Ross, G.R.T. Haldane, E. (1967) The Philosophical Works of
Descartes, Vol 2. United Kingdom, Cambridge University Press

Aristotle (384-322 BC)

Then too we hold that it is by
demonstration that the being of everything
must be proved-unless indeed to be were
its essence; and, since being is not a
genus, it is not the essence of anything.
(350BC) (Aristotle vol 2:ch7)
Aristotle. (350BC) trans Mure, G.R.G. Posterior Analytics [online]
http://classics.mit.edu/Aristotle/posterior.2.ii.html

Sant in nobis semina scientiae

I am of the opinion that all those to whom God has
given the use of this reason are obliged to use it
chiefly to try to know him and to know
themselves. It is in this way that I have tried to
begin my studies; To Mersenne, On the Eternal Truths 1630 (Descartes 1972:28)
I ask readers to examine the self evident
propositions exercise the astuteness
implanted in them by nature so the truth of the
axioms that follow will easily be known postulates to the
Meditations (Descartes 2000:163)

Descartes, R. (1972) Philosophical Writings, trans Anscombe, E. Geach, P.T. Great Britain. Open
University
Desccartes, R (2000) Philosophical Essays and Correspondence. Trans. Ariew, R. Great Britain.
Hackett Publishing