Ontological Argument

Ontological arguments are nearly a millennium old, and yet philosophers have not settled on a judgment of them. One reason for this is that Anselm's argument, as well as its most famous descendants, is importantly incomplete. Anselm claimed that it is better for God to exist in reality than only in the understanding, but he gave no justification for this curious assertion. Many have taken him to assume that existence is a property, but his defenders have easily evaded the objection. This entry considers some of the ways that philosophers have tried to supplement the argument, as well as some of the ways that others have dismissed the possibility that there is a good candidate for the missing premise. It concludes by suggesting that we would only have a refutation of ontological arguments if we had an adequate account of existential claims.