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I find ontological arguments interesting because so many smart people took them seriously (Leibniz and Godel being two, but there are many more). Even if these
by slibhb 3y ago
I find ontological arguments interesting because so many smart people took them seriously (Leibniz and Godel being two, but there are many more). Even if these kinds of arguments are wrong, their popularity seems to suggest something interesting about human psychology and pitfalls that even geniuses can't always avoid.
Ontological arguments are also interesting because of the cricisms they provoked. Hume, Kant, and others famously criticized ontological arguments.
- lemonberry 3y agoIs it possible they took it seriously due to the social and political conditions of the time?
- slibhb 3y agoYou can't rule it out but I'm skeptical. Godel was alive in the 20th century. Spinoza was another philosopher who found the ontological argument convincing and he was such a radical that he was kicked out of the Jewish community he was raised in (i.e. not someone who would have yielded to social pressure).