creators_name: Franceschi, Paul
type: preprint
datestamp: 2002-10-04
lastmod: 2011-03-11 08:55:02
metadata_visibility: show
title: On the Impossibility of Successful Ontological Arguments
subjects: phil-logic
full_text_status: public
keywords: ontological argument
abstract: This paper presents a novel objection to ontological arguments. This objection aims at showing that ontological arguments in general, given the intrinsic nature of their conclusion, are of an impossible nature. The argument rests on the fact that conclusive ontological arguments would contradict the very nature of God.

date: 2002-10
date_type: published
refereed: FALSE
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DESCARTES, R. 1642. Meditations on First Philosophy. Translated in J. Cottingham, R. Stoothoff, and D. Murdoch. The Philosophical Writings of Descartes. Vol. 2, Cambridge University Press: Cambridge, 1984
KANT, I. 1787. Critique of Pure Reason, second edition. Translated by N. Kemp-Smith. London: Macmillan, 1933
MALCOLM, N. 1960. Anselm's Ontological Arguments. Philosophical Review 69: 41-62
OPPY, G. 1995. Ontological Arguments and Belief in God. New York: Cambridge University Press
OPPY, G. 1996. Ontological Arguments. Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, http://www.plato.stanford.edu/entries/ontological-arguments
PLANTINGA, A. 1974. The Nature of Necessity, Oxford: Oxford University Press

citation:   Franceschi, Paul  (2002) On the Impossibility of Successful Ontological Arguments.  [Preprint]     
document_url: http://cogprints.org/2492/1/ontarg-en.pdf