a detailed and robustly defended Anselmian account of perfect being necessity against challenges that have emerged in the history of philosophy after St Anselm

Gaven Kerr, Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews

Leftow's work will appeal primarily to philosophers of religion and logicians who are interested in the ontological argument.

Jennifer Hart Weed, Journal of the History of Philosophy

Anselm of Canterbury gave the first "modal" ontological argument for God's existence. Here, Brian Leftow defends all premises of this argument save the claim that possibly God exists. He in particular defends the premise that God would exist with absolute or metaphysical necessity against all extant and some new objections, and provides new arguments for it. Leftow contends that Anselm's argument requires the Brouwer system of modal logic, and argues that this is part of the correct logic for "absolute," "broadly logical" or "metaphysical" modality. As part of making clear what Anselm's argument is, he contends that Anselm works with this kind of modality, and argues that Anselm provides adequate truthmakers for claims in this modality.
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Anselm of Canterbury gave the first "ontological" argument for God's existence as necessary. Yet philosophers have mostly neglected to examine what modal concepts he uses, and what their metaphysical basis is. Brian Leftow sets out Anselm's modal metaphysics, and defends all but one premise of Anselm's best argument for God's existence.
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Introduction 1: The Metaphysics 2: The Applications 3: The Problems 4: The Argument 5: Brouwer 6: Hume 7: Kant 8: Swinburne 9: The Parallel Argument 10: Imagining Nothing 11: Thinking of Nothing 12: Five More Objections 13: Perfect Being Contingency? 14: Essence Options 15: Other Non-Concreta 16: Contingency Concluded 17: The Less-Maker Argument 18: Envoi
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Brian Leftow is the William P. Alston Professor of the Philosophy of Religion at Rutgers University and an Emeritus Fellow of Oriel College, Oxford. He was previously the Nolloth Professor of the Philosophy of the Christian Religion at the University of Oxford.
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Provides the most accurate analysis of Anselm's modal argument for God's existence Argues that Anselm had an "absolute", "broadly logical", or "metaphysical" modal concept, and thought of God as existing with this sort of necessity Provides new positive arguments that God would exist with this sort of necessity, and defends the modal logic to which Anselm's argument is committed
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Produktdetaljer

ISBN
9780192896926
Publisert
2022
Utgiver
Oxford University Press
Vekt
652 gr
Høyde
241 mm
Bredde
164 mm
Dybde
25 mm
Aldersnivå
P, 06
Språk
Product language
Engelsk
Format
Product format
Innbundet
Antall sider
332

Forfatter

Biografisk notat

Brian Leftow is the William P. Alston Professor of the Philosophy of Religion at Rutgers University and an Emeritus Fellow of Oriel College, Oxford. He was previously the Nolloth Professor of the Philosophy of the Christian Religion at the University of Oxford.