On 3/11/2003 1:41:16 PM, Julia Prociw
wrote:
>When reading the Ontological
>Argument, I had stopped at the
>end of the Anslem section and
>read it aloud to a friend. At
>that point, I brought up
>Klingons. Certainly we know
>what a Kingon is and what they
>look like and how they behave
>- but do they exist?

I don't think this refutes Anslem's
argument. He isn't saying that anything
you can imagine exists--that would be an
obviously false premise. And Worf is not
portrayed as the "greatest conceivable
alien", so your argument doesn't parallel
Gaunillon's perfect island
counte-argument.

That being said, I don't think Gaunillo's
counter-argument works. Anslem is
talking about the the greatest being
imaginable, not the greatest type of thing
because every natural type of thing has its
limitations. For example, even the most
perfect ISLAND will lack knowledge and
moral goodness. It will be imperfect
because it is subject to change and
decay as a material thing. It is not eternal
and has few powers or abilities.

Suppose we take the Island and make it
conscious, give it all power and
knowledge, make it perfectly good and
just and make sure it's not limited by it's
spatial location, so we make it
immaterial. And then we make it eternal
for good measure...we've made that
Island into God then, which is the
greatest conceivable being. And if we
don't add "existence'" to the list as well,
Anselm would say the being we are
imagining isn't REALLY the greatest.

Prof. Borrowdale
borrowdalej@lanecc.edu