PHILOS 1E03 Lecture Notes - Lecture 2: Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz, Bernard Bolzano, Gaunilo Of Marmoutiers
1 Nov 2017
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Last time we looked at zeno"s arguments about the perfections of the cosmos, and adapted them to god: What exists is better than what does not exist. We noted that this seemed to be a valid argument, needing only the added premise that something exists. and we noted its similarity to anselm"s: What actually exists is greater than what is merely thought to exist. Nothing is greater than a being-than- which-a-greater-cannot-be-thought (= god). Gaunilo objects: for i certainly do not yet admit this greater [then everything] to be any truly existing thing . (25) cf. This is similar to the objection of gottfried leibniz (1646-1716) to descartes"s later version of the ont. arg. But our concept of god, as the most perfect being, contains all perfections. therefore existence is part of the very concept of god. therefore god exists. (we"ll return to his attempt to remedy that aw in a moment. Bernard bolzano (1781-1848) argued for the actual in nite as follows:
