The Very Concept Or Idea Of God Philosophy Essay

The Very Concept Or Idea Of God Philosophy Essay Ontological arguments attempt to show that the very concept or idea of God implies his reality; that is, that ones being able to clearly conceive of God somehow implies that God actually exists. The ontological argument is a priori. This means that the argument does not rely on the evidence of the sense, or the world around us, for either its premises or its conclusion, but rather it moves by stages of logical argument to a conclusion which is self-evidently true or logically necessary. The argument is both deductive and analytic. This means that the premises of the argument contain the conclusion it reaches and the argument is structured in such a way as to make the conclusion the only possible one that can be deduced from its premises. Because it is analytic it is true by definition alone. The ontological argument was first formulated by eleventh century Archbishop of Canterbury, St. Anselm. Anselms original version of the argument is developed in his Proslogion in the course of some reflections on the fool who hath said in his heart, There is no God. Anselm reasons that even to deny Gods existence, the fool must understand the idea of God, who must exist as an idea in the understanding of the fool. Anselm suggests that the idea of God is the greatest possible being, a being than which nothing greater can be conceived. Anselm claims that it is greater to exist in reality than merely to exist in the understanding. Since God is by definition the greatest possible being, it is impossible for God to only exist in the mind (the understanding). For if God only existed in the mind and not in reality, the God would not be the greatest possible being. Anselms argument is an essential idea of the ontological argument because he was the first scholar to formulate the ontological argument which other philosophers, including modern scholars, use as the basis of their developments to the ontological argument. Five hundred years after Anselm, the French philosopher Rene Descartes reformulated the ontological proof, in terms of the concept of necessary existence. Descartes realised that doubting all of his knowledge proved his existence: I think, therefore I am. Similar to Anselm, Descartes defined God as an infinitely perfect being superior to all beings in perfection. He argued that because we exist and in our minds, have the concept of a perfect being; and as an imperfect being, we could not have conjured up the concept of a perfect being. The concept of a perfect being must therefore have originated from the perfect being itself and a perfect being must exist in order to be perfect, therefore a perfect being exists. Descartes applied his argument for a perfect being to the existence of God. He argued that God is the idea of a supremely perfect being. A supremely perfect being has all perfections. Existence is a perfection. A supremely perfect being has the perfection of existence. It is impossible to think of God as not existing, therefore, God exists. Descartes maintained existence belonged analytically to God in the same way that three angles are analytically predicated of a triangle, or less convincingly, as a valley is a necessary predicate of a mountain. Norman Malcolm proposed another form of the ontological argument in support of necessary existence. Malcolm argued; if God exists, his existence is necessary; if God does not exist, his existence is impossible. Either God exists or he does not exist. Therefore Gods existence is either necessary or impossible. Gods existence is possible (not impossible), therefore Gods existence is necessary. Malcolms argument is an essential idea of the ontological argument because it is a development of both Anselms and Descartes arguments and logically proves the necessary existence of God. Alvin Plantinga formulated his own, contemporary version of the ontological argument. Plantainga suggested that since we are able to imagine any number of alternative worlds in which things may be quite different, for example a world in which John F Kennedy decided not to become a politician and been an estate agent instead. There must be any number of possible worlds, including our own. However, if Gods existence is necessary, he must exist in them all and have all the characteristics of God in them all. This is because, Plantinga argued, God is both maximally great and maximally excellent. He proposed that: there exists a world in which there is a being of maximal greatness, and a being of maximal excellence is omnipotent, omniscient and omnibenevolent in all worlds. Plantingas argument is an essential idea of the ontological argument because it succeeds in showing that God is possible in all possible worlds. b) Despite the ontological argument seeming to be a strong, convincing argument for proof for the existence of God, it comes under heavy scrutiny from its weaknesses. Anselms argument was refuted in his own lifetime by Gaunilo, who demonstrated that if the logic of the argument were applied to things other than God, it led to invalid conclusions. Gaunilo replaced the word God with the greatest island which led to his argument which had the same form as Anselms, with true premises, and yet, which leads to a false conclusion. Gaunilo argued: I can conceive of an island that than which no greater island can be thought. Such an island must possess all perfections. Existence is a perfection, therefore, the island exists. Gaunilos argument shows that just because we can think of the greatest possible thing or being in our mind it does not mean that it exists in reality. However this is a weak criticism of the ontological argument and the strengths are more convincing because Gaunilo is applying the argument to a contingent object, where as God is a necessary being according to Anselm. An island may or may not exist. Furthermore, there is no logical poin t at which we might reasonably say that we have reached intrinsic perfection in an island or other islands, or other contingent things, is surely subjective I cannot possibly guarantee that my perfect island is the same as yours. Therefore the strengths of the ontological argument are much more convincing than Gaunilos criticism because it shows that the argument works when applied to a necessary being, where as Gaunilo applied it to a contingent item, which is not the same thing. Fundamental to Anselms and Descartes form of the ontological argument is that existence is a predicate an attribute or quality that can be possessed or lacked, such as size, shape, colour, temperature, personality, intelligence or traits. These may or may not belong to a being or thing, and their presence or absence is part of our understanding and apprehension of it. However Kant observed that existence is not associated with the definition of something, since it does not add to our understanding of that thing. We must establish the existence of something before we can say what it is like. We cannot ascribe existence a priori to our definition of a perfect being. Kant argues it would be self contradictory to posit a triangle and yet reject its three angles, but there is no contradiction in rejecting the triangle together with its three angles. Kants criticism of the ontological argument is very strong and causes the ontological argument to be weak and not convincing because Anselm and Descartes used existence as a predicate in their arguments and consequently they were wrong to do so because existence is not a quality because the idea of God, existence is contained within the definition of God. Kant also added that existence adds nothing to the concept of a thing or being. For example, one hundred pounds in the imagination was not made greater in number or nature by existing in reality. However this argument fails to weaken the ontological argument because arguably one hundred pounds in reality is more useful than one hundred pounds in the mind. In the same way God who only exists in the mind can have no real effect on the lives of believers; where as God who exists in reality can intervene in peoples lives and make a real difference. Despite this, Kants argument is still a strong criticism and causes the ontological argument to not be a convincing argument because you can reject the idea of God and easily thin of a being that does not exist. David Hume also criticised the ontological argument. He believed that the ontological argument makes a false assumption about existence that necessary existence was a coherent concept. Hume argued that existence could only ever be contingent and that all statements about existence could be denied without contradiction. All things which could be said to exist could also be said not to exist. Hume said: However much our concept of an object may contain, we must go outside of it to determine whether or not it exists. We cannot define something into existence even if it has all the perfections we can imagine. Humes criticism is similar to Kants and makes the ontological argument a less convincing argument because it is not possible to move from the necessary of a proposition to the necessity of a God. In conclusion the ontological argument is a fairly convincing argument despite its various criticisms. The ontological argument cannot be disproved but it also cannot be proved, yet it remains a fairly strong and convincing argument for the existence of God. It is the strongest argument for the theist but it can be argued that it cannot be a strong argument or proof for the existence of God because there is no empirical evidence to prove its claims. However, I believe that it remains a fairly convincing argument because if God is the greatest being, by definition, God must be a necessary being, and in order to be the great being conceivable, God must exist in reality.

Yale :: essays research papers

In January of 1997, Yale University was brought up on Charges of unfair labor practices. The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) claimed that Yale should pay its teacher assistants as part time faculty. Although these teacher assistants are working they are also graduate students at the school. The NLRB stated that the teacher assistants at the school are a very essential part of the university’s structure. Jut a month prior to all this controversy, Yale University had just settled on a long drawn out contract dispute with its food service and maintenance crew. A spoke person for the university said he hoped that this new problem could be solved quickly and painlessly. The school does not want to hold the reputation of being constantly involved in contract negotiations or legal controversy. The school does not want to hold the reputation of being constantly involved in contract disputes, but as of now it they are. Yale believes that there is no reason for them to pay â€Å"students† for learning how to do their job. The institution feels as though this is just another step in into the real world, it’s a learning experience. On the other hand, the NLRB feels as though the graduate students working as teacher assistants should be paid as a Yale employee. They believe the students ate entitled to receive benefits and fair pay. The NLRB is trying to point out the importance of teacher assistants, without them professors would be forced to teach a larger sized class on their own. The teacher assistants break the group apart into smaller sections of about 25 to 30 students, this gives the students a better teacher-student ratio. Although Yale does hold a strong case, I feel as though the NLRB’s beliefs are the correct one. These â€Å"students† as they are called by Yale university are not just ones ordinary undergraduates, some have other jobs and are working toward their own PHD or masters degree. These individuals are well qualified to teach a small group of undergraduates, therefore they should be paid a reasonable wage. The teacher assistants could be looked at as an extension of the head professor. Some of these TA’s know the students a lot better than the professor does, on a personal or educational level. The Yale University Board claims that they are students who are learning another aspect of teaching, and therefore are still considered students.

Credit Risk Management for Mongolian Banks Essay

The importance of optimal decision-making and precise predictions is not limited to banks only but also of importance to other financial institutions. Nowadays, financial markets are becoming increasingly uncertain and interdependent, making accurate prediction of future market directions a near impossible task. Although, in case of Mongolia, some econometric models are being tested for the last two decades, practical application is lackluster and it is common practice for businessmen to make decisions based on intuition and gut feeling. Unfortunately, this unscientific approach to decision making is quite commonplace. The objective of this research is to overcome conditions and to identify the best evaluation model for credit risk forecasting for banking institutions. From a theoretical point of view, this research paper introduces a literature review on the application of back propagation algorithm of an artificial neural network, linear probability model, and binary choice (logit probit) model for credit risk management. Whereas, from an empirical point of view, this research compares the econometric models and artificial neural network using Mongolian banks’ credit risk data, and shows the differences between the aforementioned four models. We demonstrate that artificial neural network model is more convenient for Mongolian banks’ credit risk management than other econometric models due to the models’ evaluation and forecast accuracy. Therefore, we recommend Mongolian banks and financial institutions to apply ANN model to forecast credit risk and to hedge risk. Key words: credit risk management, linear probability model, binary choice logit and probit model, artificial neural network, back propagation algorithm, forecasting.

Essay about Deaf Culture - 1561 Words

Deaf Culture I may not be considered part of the hearing culture due to my severe to profound hearing loss, but some people might be surprised to hear that I am not considered a part of the Deaf culture. A majority of the Deaf culture is very critical of those who assimilate with hearing people and accept hearing culture as their majority culture. I believe that every hearing impaired and deaf person is an individual and needs to do what is best for them instead of being worried about following the rules of the Deaf culture. The members of Deaf culture have many different levels of hearing that range from profoundly deaf to slightly hard of hearing (Halpern). However, none of the members of the Deaf culture consider themselves†¦show more content†¦The Deaf community is a community where they can feel like they actually belong and feel accepted. Deaf culture tends to be critical of deaf people who embrace hearing culture. They consider these people traitors. One of the reasons why the Deaf community looks down at someone who rejects their Deaf identity is because they feel that the person is leaving behind a rich culture, not a disability (Halpern). Deaf culture has a sign for hearing that is done in front of the mouth. When they want to make an insult to deaf or hearing impaired people whom accept their own majority culture as the hearing culture they make the same motion for hearing in front of the forehead instead of the mouth. This is supposed to mean who ever they are talking about is hearing in the head (Halpern). This sign is meant to be an insult to those people who associate with hearing culture. It is easy to see why Deaf culture is so critical of those who assimilate with hearing culture because the Deaf have had a history of struggle and discrimination. Hearing culture has been critical of what Deaf people are able to do and have denied their existence. In the past American deaf people have been denied the right to vote, to marry, and to raise children (Halpern). Deaf children often were denied education, grew up illiterate, or grew up with no real language because at one point in time sign language was not allowed (Halpern).Show MoreRelatedDeaf Culture1589 Words   |  7 PagesDeaf Culture In mainstream American society, we tend to approach deafness as a defect. Helen Keller is alleged to have said, Blindness cuts people off from things; deafness cuts people off from people. (rnib.org) This seems a very accurate description of what Kellers world must have been. We as hearing people tend to pity deaf people, or, if they succeed in the hearing world, admire them for overcoming a severe handicap. We tend to look at signing as an inferior substitute for real communicationRead MoreDeaf Culture2444 Words   |  10 Pageshearing are classified as deaf. There are many deaf people in the world, it can range from 5 million to 40 million people. 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We as hearing people tend to pity deaf people, or, if they succeed in the hearing world, admire them for overcoming a severe handicap. We tend to look at signing as an inferior substitute for real communicationRead MoreCultures and Sub-Cultures of the Deaf and Deaf-Blind Essay1015 Words   |  5 PagesThe Cultures and Subcultures of the Deaf and Deaf-Blind. California University of Pennsylvania CMD 350: Sign Language amp; Braille I September 27, 2011 The Cultures and Subcultures of the Deaf and Deaf-Blind. Deaf culture describes the social beliefs, behaviors, art, literary traditions, history, values and shared institutions of communities that are affected by deafness and which use sign languages as the main means of communication (http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deaf_culture). MuchRead MoreThe Deaf Community and Its Culture1545 Words   |  7 Pageswas not sure what to expect. 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