The paper reconstructs Frege's criticism of the ontological argument for the existence of God on the basis of various remarks scattered in his writings. The material is organized in such a way as to: (a) reveal a logical structure of the argument; (b) show and discern various presupposition of a logical, semantical and ontological character; and (c) indicate some essential weaknesses of the ontological argument. It is argued that Frege's critical commentaries on this argument are essentially connected to four solutions, stating that: (1) the difference between a name and a predicate is categorical; (2) the existential judgement possesses a different logical structure than the singular judgement; (3) in the characteristic of concepts marks and properties should be distinguished; (4) the ascription of number contains the statement about a concept. In order to make Frege's argumentation as understandable as possible it is confronted with Kant's criticism of ontological argument. The analysis carried on in the above-described way reveals a number of shortcomings which discredit the ontological argument. For example, the paper shows that the analysis of predication of oneness (Einzigkeit) does not lead to the affirmation of God's existence. Moreover, it shows that in that argument the term God is used in two different semantic roles; that some theses that should constitute the argument's conclusion, are already assumed; and that sense-condition and truth-conditions are not disting

Charles Taliaferro, Paul Draper, Philip L. Quinn. The Cartesian ontological argument was refuted by Kant – although not in the way most philosophers have supposed. The modal argument contains no logical flaw, but it depends on a premise ... In 85 new and updated essays, this comprehensive volume provides anauthoritative guide to the philosophy of religion. Includes contributions from established philosophers and risingstars 22 new entries have now been added, and all material from theprevious edition has been updated and reorganized Broad coverage spans the areas of world religions, theism,atheism, , the problem of evil, science and religion, andethics

Saint Anselm of Canterbury offered several arguments for the existence of God. We examine the famous ontological argument in Proslogium II. Many recent authors have interpreted this argument as a modal one.' But we believe that Jonathan Barnes has argued persuasively that Anselm's argument is not modal.2 Even if one were to construe the word 'can' in the definite description 'that than which none greater can be conceived' in terms of metaphysical possibility, the logic of the ontological argument itself doesn't include inferences based on this modality. In this paper, we develop a reading of Anselm's Proslogium that contains no modal inferences. Rather, the argument turns on the difference between saying that there is such a thing as x and saying that x has the property of existence. We formally represent the claim that there is such a thing as x by '3y(y=x)' and the claim that x has the property of existence by 'E!x'. That is, we represent the difference between the two claims by exploiting the distinction between quantifying over x and predicating existence of x. We shall sometimes refer to this as the distinction between the being of x and the existence of x. Thus, instead of reading Anselm as having discovered a way of inferring God's actuality from His mere possibility, we read him as having discovered a way of inferring God's existence from His mere being. Another important feature of our reading concerns the fact that we take the phrase "that than which none greater ca

God (with the same or similar arguments also generally being used when talking about the existence of multiple deities) can be categorized as logical The existence of God is a subject of debate in the philosophy of religion and theology. A wide variety of arguments for and against the existence of God (with the same or similar arguments also generally being used when talking about the existence of multiple deities) can be categorized as logical, empirical, metaphysical, subjective, or scientific. In philosophical terms, the question of the exis Whatever is contained in a clear and distinct idea of a thing must be predicated of that thing; but a clear and distinct idea of an absolutely perfect Being contains the idea of actual existence; therefore since we have the idea of an absolutely perfect Being such a Being must really exist. Thomas Aquinas criticized the argument for proposing a definition of God which, if God is transcendent, should be impossible for humans. Immanuel Kant criticized the proof from a logical standpoint: he stated that the term "God" really signifies two different terms: both idea of God, and God. Kant concluded that the proof is equivocation, based on the ambiguity of the word God. Kant also challenged the argument's assumption that existence is a predicate (of perfection) because it does not add anything to the essence of a being. If existence is not a predicate, then it is not necessarily true that the greatest possible being exists. A common rebuttal to Kant's critique is that, although "existence" does add… If…