In discussions of the Teleological and Ontological arguments, one controversial issue is whether existence is a predicate or not. On one hand, the Ontological argument contends that existence is a predicate to perfection. On the other hand, Kant disputes that existence is not a “real predicate” to perfection because it does not give attributes to explain the existence of God, therefore, making existence a special case. I will be discussing the idea of a special case and how the Ontological argument fails to recognize the idea of it, where the Teleological argument strongly supports the idea of a special case by the idea of the intelligent designer. The Teleological argument avoids the idea of a predicate by explaining the attributes of why
…show more content…
In the textbook, it uses the example of “apple is red, round, ripe, and exists” to show that just because you say something ‘exists’ does not mean that it gives a characteristic to an object such an apple, but rather it just states that the object has these characteristics because it exists (Solomon & McDermind 125). This is a major reason why Kant states that existence is a special case because existence of things cannot just be a “matter of logic” (Solomon & McDermind 125). Kant states that anything can become a logical predicate even the subject itself because logic makes no effort to explain why the subject may ‘exist’. Determination, however, completes the idea of a predicate, because determination adds details to the subject and expand on one’s simple idea. Kant explains why a predicate cannot be a logical predicate because anything can become one, stating that God’s existence isn’t necessarily true, but rather by using determination it is the added details of why something (God) might exist. Without added determination in Descartes predicate he lacks an explanation to why God exist and how existence is a predicate to perfection and in the end, it is just an apple with such and such characteristics but existence itself doesn’t give the apple characteristics. With this being said, the …show more content…
Both of the arguments end goals are proving the existence of God, and how God is all powerful. The two arguments go into the idea that life is finite and god is infinite, which means that life has a beginning and an end, where God has always existed and will continue to exist. No matter what happens in life people will always die, but God will live on, for h is infinitely more powerful than anything he has created. They both use the idea of greater power in the way that God is an all-powerful creator/designer that possesses perfect traits and his perfect attributes promote his existence. Though they both use the idea of attributes, the Teleological argument better supports Kant’s idea of determinism which gives more detailed characteristics to the existence of God, opposed to reinforcing them through the world
In the textbook, it uses the example of “apple is red, round, ripe, and exists” to show that just because you say something ‘exists’ does not mean that it gives a characteristic to an object such an apple, but rather it just states that the object has these characteristics because it exists (Solomon & McDermind 125). This is a major reason why Kant states that existence is a special case because existence of things cannot just be a “matter of logic” (Solomon & McDermind 125). Kant states that anything can become a logical predicate even the subject itself because logic makes no effort to explain why the subject may ‘exist’. Determination, however, completes the idea of a predicate, because determination adds details to the subject and expand on one’s simple idea. Kant explains why a predicate cannot be a logical predicate because anything can become one, stating that God’s existence isn’t necessarily true, but rather by using determination it is the added details of why something (God) might exist. Without added determination in Descartes predicate he lacks an explanation to why God exist and how existence is a predicate to perfection and in the end, it is just an apple with such and such characteristics but existence itself doesn’t give the apple characteristics. With this being said, the …show more content…
Both of the arguments end goals are proving the existence of God, and how God is all powerful. The two arguments go into the idea that life is finite and god is infinite, which means that life has a beginning and an end, where God has always existed and will continue to exist. No matter what happens in life people will always die, but God will live on, for h is infinitely more powerful than anything he has created. They both use the idea of greater power in the way that God is an all-powerful creator/designer that possesses perfect traits and his perfect attributes promote his existence. Though they both use the idea of attributes, the Teleological argument better supports Kant’s idea of determinism which gives more detailed characteristics to the existence of God, opposed to reinforcing them through the world