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    • Philosopher Fridays: Anselm’s Ontological Argument

      Posted at 4:00 pm by Michelle Joelle, on December 13, 2014

      Welcome to Philosopher Fridays, where I aim to expose the academic underpinnings of my thoughts on story-telling and writing. In this series I make no attempt to give a comprehensive view of any of the philosophers I tackle, but instead pick out and explain what draws me back to their works again and again. 

      For the next few weeks I’ll be exploring the tenuous relationship between faith and reason in a sub-series I’m calling “Expecting Ambiguity“. My aim is to explain how philosophical arguments for the existence of God are not as concretely determinate (and thus as easy to dismiss) as they are often cast, but that they instead offer as much insight into the limits and powers of subjective human knowledge as they do into religion.

      And because of finals and grading, this week we have a very special Saturday installment of Philosopher Fridays. 

      ANSELM: Saint Anselm of Canterbury was one of the earliest scholastic theologians. Born to a noble family in 1033, Anselm was initially denied the chance to choice a monastery by his father at the age of 15. After suffering psychological illness and the death of his mother, he left home at the age of 23 to pursue his dream without his father’s consent, and joined the Benedictine order. He was exiled from England a few times because of monarchical and papal power disputes and died in 1109.

      What he is best known for, however, is his proof for the existence of God: the Ontological Argument of chapters two and three of the Proslogion. Written in 1077 as a meditation on the existence of God, the Proslogion – originally titled Faith Seeking Understanding – was contentious from the start. The text is almost universally published with its earliest critical commentary, written by monk Gaunilo of Marmoutiers and followed up by Anselm’s own reply to this rebuttal. I will go through the proof, and then address some of its criticisms.

      The Ontological Proof:

      1. If the phrase “that than which nothing greater can be thought” can be understood, then this concept can be said to exist in the understanding.
      2. That which exists both in reality and in the understanding is greater than that which exists only in the understanding.
      3. Thus that than which nothing greater can be thought cannot exist solely in the understanding, because if it were only to exist in the understanding, then we could think of something greater – and we would no longer be describing something than which nothing greater could be thought.
      4. Therefore, that than which nothing greater can be thought must exist in both the understanding and in reality.
      5. Further, if it is possible to think that something can exist which cannot be thought not to exist, then surely that which cannot be thought not to exist is greater still than anything which can be thought not to exist.
      6. Therefore, that than which nothing greater can be thought doesn’t just exist in both the understanding and in reality – it cannot be thought not to exist.

      And he finishes the argument by saying “And this is you, O Lord, our God” (Ch 3).

      Interpretations, Reductions, and Critiques:

      This can be a little confusing linguistically, so interpreters are tempted to simplify the ungainly “that than which nothing greater can be conceived” to “the greatest thing I can think of” or “the greatest being that can be conceived”. The argument is recast thus:

      1. God is the greatest thing that can be thought.
      2. Since it is greater to exist in reality than just in thought, the greatest thing must exist in reality.
      3. Therefore, God must exist.

      With this change, critiques come quickly and easily. Guanilo’s “perfect island” objection (the early commentary mentioned above) stems from this notion, stating that in imagining a perfect island, you could easily keeping imagining something to make it better without that better thing ever coming to be in reality, thereby nullifying the necessity of static perfection. If one God is the greatest being that can be conceived, then two Gods would be even greater, and then God would not be the greatest possible being, and the entire thing would fall apart. Perfection in God cannot imply existence any more than perfection in an island.

      But this simplification is a mistake that fundamentally changes the meaning from something indefinite to something definite. These objections aren’t wrong in themselves. In fact, based on his reply to Guanilo, Anselm quite agrees. However he also notes that these objections have almost nothing to do with his own proof. Because Anselm never defines God as the “greatest being that can be conceived.”

      Infinite Perfection and Positive Ambiguity:

      In the Latin, the definition of God is always framed in open-ended terms, as aliquid quo maius nihil cogitate potest (that than which nothing greater can be thought), aliquid quo maius cogitari non valet (that than which something of greater worth cannot be conceived), or aliquid quo maius cogitari non potest (that than which something greater cannot be thought). He later asks “What are you, if not the greatest of all beings…?” (ch 5), but he never settles on anything concrete.

      This is explicitly not something definite or static, but rather something unlimited and indefinite. To change the definition in this way is more than just reductive – it completely erases the major theological heart of the Proslogion. The real goal of the text, as I see it, is not to prove the existence of a specified and delimited God, but instead to wonder at the notion of God as something which exceeds human understanding. He’s meditating explicitly on our temptation to simplify God and reality into concrete terms and seeking the limits of human understanding. The chapters that follow this proof are primarily questions about what appear to be contradictions, questions about what it means to seek something with no apparent limit, and finally statements about eternity, timelessness, and limitlessness.

      This does not simply resolve into a negative theology. God is not “that which we cannot understand”, but instead gives rise to a positive ambiguity that allows us to experience a goodness that can increase indefinitely. Our own limits are removed – however great our creative and intellectual powers, there is no ceiling, no static standard of perfection that cannot be breached. By asserting a God that is not “the greatest being that can be thought” but instead “that than which nothing greater can be thought” Anselm is asserting that our own human limits need not be stifling – essentially, no matter how small we are, God’s infinite greatness is our infinite growth.  Says he at the beginning of the final chapter of the Proslogion:

      For I have found a joy that is full and more than full. Indeed, when the heart, the mind, the soul, and the whole human being are filled with that joy, there will still remain joy beyond measure. The whole of that joy will therefore not enter into those who rejoice; instead, those who rejoice will enter wholly into that joy. Ch. 26

      This isn’t merely a defense of faith, it’s a celebration of human creativity. Anselm recasts our infinite distance from God in a positive light; rather than lamenting how far we are from perfection and bemoaning the ambiguity of faith, he instead rejoices over how far and how freely we can travel when we leave behind our own limits. If we focus solely on what we can contain (concrete, definite ideas) we will deny ourselves the chance to jump into something than can contain us – something in which there is infinite possibility.

      There are, of course, some more substantial critiques of an epistemological nature. Kant’s critique of Anselm’s assumption that existence can be cast as a predicate and Hume’s critique of a priori knowledge are both worth some time and exploration. The implications of these critiques far outreach the scope of this post, however, and I’ll save them for another day.

      What Anselm calls the divine, others may call wonder or doubt, but the claim is the same: that we can always know more than we can rationally explain, we can always feel more than we can put into words, we can always discover more than our dominant paradigm can account for. The God that Anselm proves is not something concretely determinate, but instead something which renders knowledge, creativity, and growth without limit.

      Posted in Series | 15 Comments | Tagged anselm, god, monologion, ontological argument, philosopher fridays, philosophy, proslogion, st. anselm, the existence of God, theology
    • Philosopher Fridays: Pascal’s Ambiguous Wager

      Posted at 11:00 pm by Michelle Joelle, on November 21, 2014

      Welcome to Philosopher Fridays, where I aim to expose the academic underpinnings of my thoughts on story-telling and writing. In this series I make no attempt to give a comprehensive view of any of the philosophers I tackle, but instead pick out and explain what draws me back to their works again and again. 

      For the next few weeks I’ll be exploring the tenuous relationship between faith and reason in a sub-series I’m calling “Expecting Ambiguity“. My aim is to explain how philosophical arguments for the existence of God are not as concretely determinate (and thus as easy to dismiss) as they are often cast, but that they instead offer as much insight into the limits and powers of subjective human knowledge as they do into religion.

      http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blaise_Pascal#mediaviewer/File:Blaise_Pascal_Versailles.JPG

      PASCAL: Born in 1623, Blaise Pascal was a French mathematician, inventor, theologian, and philosopher until his death in 1662, when he was just 39 years old. He is known for his work in the invention of calculation machines, his development of mathematics, and notably, both his defense of the scientific method and his defense of religious belief – two things which are now painted as diametrical opposites – and by far his most famous contributions to the Western philosophical canon is his view of faith as a wager.

      Pascal’s wager is essentially the theory that believing in God is a sure bet, not necessarily because you are guaranteed to win, but because you’re guaranteed not to lose. His premise is fairly simple: it is rational to believe in God because even the possibility of being wrong causes no harm, where as deciding not to believe in God may turn out alright, but might also be devastating in the long run. Belief in God carries with it both the greatest potential pay off, and almost no chance of losing anything, whereas denying the existence of God may result in no loss, but could cause you to lose everything. Essentially, the decision to believe in God (or not) comes, for Pascal, down to decision theory.

      Options: God exists God does not exist
      Belief in God Infinite reward Nothing gained or lost
      Denial of God Infinite punishment Nothing gained or lost

      In Pascal’s words:

      “God is, or He is not.” But to which side shall we incline? Reason can decide nothing here. There is an infinite chaos which separated us. A game is being played at the extremity of this infinite distance where heads or tails will turn up… Which will you choose then? Let us see. Since you must choose, let us see which interests you least. You have two things to lose, the true and the good; and two things to stake, your reason and your will, your knowledge and your happiness; and your nature has two things to shun, error and misery. Your reason is no more shocked in choosing one rather than the other, since you must of necessity choose… But your happiness? Let us weigh the gain and the loss in wagering that God is… If you gain, you gain all; if you lose, you lose nothing. Wager, then, without hesitation that He is. (Pensees, 1660)

      Now, it can get a bit more complicated than that; the IEP does a wonderful job laying out three different versions of the theory that have gained traction in the tradition, as well as prominent academic critiques, and I highly suggest you read through the linked page for a full understanding of the argument and its merits and faults.

      I, however, am going to  stay on the surface and boil it down to a pair of simple claims: that belief can be a matter of rational choice, and that rational choice can be inherently a gamble. Taken together, these claims reveal a surprising tie between reason and ambiguity. Reason is often spoken of as a system for dealing with empirical data, or as an internal system of axiomatic truths, but this view opens up a new understanding of reason as pure possibility – a gamble, but not a guess. And this says as much about our human intellect as it does about God.

      No matter how well we reason things through and how much evidence we have available to us, there will always be at least a little bit that we don’t know for sure. And more often than not, there will be a lot we don’t know.

      Following this, one could say that when we believe in scientific theories, we have a good reason to do so – but we’re still making a choice to accept the evidence as it is given. According to Richard Feynman, there’s always something missing from any scientific account, and thus always something more to know. The good scientist is one who holds on to doubt and skepticism. In this way, accepting a scientific theory, no matter how sure it is, still involves a choice to believe it while still be open to the possibility that the theory is potentially limited, incomplete, or even wrong.

      This would, of course, be a very zoomed in version of Pascal’s wager. The personal stakes of being right or wrong are potentially lower (your life, perhaps, instead of your immortal soul) and the jump from probability to knowledge a much shorter distance (the gaps closed by empirical evidence), but in many cases the wager is the theoretically the same. If we only zoomed out half way between the close lens of the science and the wide lens of Pascal, we might find a similar model of decision making in those who rely on science, but know little about it, including those who work with chemicals, anyone taking medicine or having surgery, people operating heavy machinery, and those relying on safety equipment. They would have some knowledge, but would still be making a choice to believe based on the potential costs and benefits.

      This makes me think perhaps that all knowledge involves a choice and a gamble, even when we’re not dealing with something as much of a leap as the existence of God. Even if Pascal’s bet on God isn’t in itself convincing, it still opens a wide range questions about what knowledge and belief require, and suggests that perhaps they’re not quite as distinct as we would like to think.

      Posted in Series | 30 Comments | Tagged Blaise Pascal, faith, feynman, god, pascal, pascal's wager, philosopher fridays, philosophy, reason, the existence of God, theology
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