The Ontological Argument
Summary
The Ontological Argument is an attempt to show that the existence of God necessarily follows from the definition of God as the supreme being.
According to the Ontological Argument, God is defined as the most perfect being imaginable or, in the most famous formulation of the argument, given by St Anselm (1033–1109), as ‘that being than which nothing greater can be conceived’. One of the aspects of this perfection or greatness is supposed to be existence. A perfect being would not be perfect if it did not exist.
Because this conclusion can be drawn prior to experience, it is known as an ‘priori argument’.
The Ontological Argument is very different from the previous three arguments for the existence of God in that it does not rely on evidence at all.
