The Ontological Argument (or PB)

The ontological argument for the existence of God was long thought to have been discredited. Theists as well as atheists thought so in, say, 1958.

But not only has the argument made a comeback, it has a new name that indicates a new focus: Perfect Being Theology. The name indicates that the ontological argument isn't 'only' used to show that God exists, but to prop up some very controversial ideas about His nature and the character of our worship of him.https://ndpr.nd.edu/news/the-greatest-possible-being/

I'm not an admirer of the ontological argument, and am pretty sure I'll always have something better to do than to set aside time for books such as the one pictured here.

I'll be more explicit about my reactions to the ontological argument than I usually am, though. My take is that the word "perfect" has no fixed meaning, and that if through some pragmatic arbitration we could fix one it would not have anything akin to the content that "Perfect Being Theology" requires of it. Further, the spinning out of God from highly abstract inferences in this way has little to do with the Biblical God, nor the God of common religious experience.

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Jamesian Philosophy Refreshed

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