The ontological proof, as he sets it forth, defines God as the ens realissimum, the most real being; i.e., the subject of all predicates that belong to being absolutely. It is contended, by those who believe the proof valid, that, since “existence” is such a predicate, this subject must have the predicate “existence,” i.e., must exist. Kant objects that existence is not a predicate. A hundred thalers that I merely imagine may, he says, have all the same predicates as a hundred real thalers.
