Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Acknowledgements
- Preface
- I EPICUREANISM
- II STOICISM
- 3 Remarks on the Stoic Theory of the proper noun
- 4 Remarks on the classification of simple propositions in Hellenistic logics
- 5 The conjunctive model
- 6 The Stoic theory of the supreme genus and Platonic ontology
- 7 On a Stoic way of not being
- 8 Did Diogenes of Babylon invent the Ontological Arugument?
- III SCEPTICISM
- Bibliography
- Index of subjects
- Index of names
- Index of passages cited
8 - Did Diogenes of Babylon invent the Ontological Arugument?
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 25 October 2009
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Acknowledgements
- Preface
- I EPICUREANISM
- II STOICISM
- 3 Remarks on the Stoic Theory of the proper noun
- 4 Remarks on the classification of simple propositions in Hellenistic logics
- 5 The conjunctive model
- 6 The Stoic theory of the supreme genus and Platonic ontology
- 7 On a Stoic way of not being
- 8 Did Diogenes of Babylon invent the Ontological Arugument?
- III SCEPTICISM
- Bibliography
- Index of subjects
- Index of names
- Index of passages cited
Summary
The so-called ‘Ontological Argument’ (hereafter: OA), which claims to establish the existence of God on the basis of his essence alone, is probably, together with the Liar Paradox, the Third-Man Argument and some other jewels of the same water, one of the most fascinating legacies of the whole Western philosophical tradition. Its official inventor, as is well known, is Anselm of Canterbury (eleventh century); new versions of it were devised by Descartes and some of his most prominent followers; a radical criticism was offered by Kant; and some modern philosophers have tried to revive it under new guises (Plantinga 1965, Hick and McGill 1967, among others, offer comprehensive reviews of this long story). As usual, some historians invoked the nil novi sub sole philosophico, and claimed that the OA had been already adumbrated, or even actually elaborated, by some ancient philosophers. Plato's name was mentioned in this context, by virtue either of some ‘ontological’ moves in the final argument for the immortality of soul in the Phaedo (e.g. Gallop 1975, p. 217; Schofield 1982, p. 2; Dumont 1982, p. 389 n. 6), or of the unique ontological properties of the Good in the Republic (Johnson 1963); some statements of Aristotle's about necessary and eternal being have also been invoked circumstantially (Hartshorne 1965, pp. 139–49); passages from Philo, Boethius and Augustine are standardly quoted as well.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Papers in Hellenistic Philosophy , pp. 170 - 189Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 1994