Our server costs ~$56 per month to run. Please consider donating or becoming a Patron to help keep the site running. Help us gain new members by following us on Twitter and liking our page on Facebook!
Current time: July 27, 2025, 2:30 pm

Thread Rating:
  • 0 Vote(s) - 0 Average
  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • 4
  • 5
The Ontological Argument for the Existence of God
RE: The Ontological Argument for the Existence of God
Note that Plantinga doesn't endorse modal realism, and so he is trying to have his cake and eat it too.

Wikipedia Wrote:Intense debate has also emerged over the ontological status of possible worlds, provoked especially by David Lewis's defense of modal realism, the doctrine that talk about "possible worlds" is best explained in terms of innumerable, really existing worlds beyond the one we live in. The fundamental question here is: given that modal logic works, and that some possible-worlds semantics for modal logic is correct, what has to be true of the world, and just what are these possible worlds that we range over in our interpretation of modal statements? Lewis argued that what we range over are real, concrete worlds that exist just as unequivocally as our actual world exists, but that are distinguished from the actual world simply by standing in no spatial, temporal, or causal relations with the actual world. (On Lewis's account, the only "special" property that the actual world has is a relational one: that we are in it. This doctrine is called "the indexicality of actuality": "actual" is a merely indexical term, like "now" and "here".) Others, such as Robert Adams and William Lycan, reject Lewis's picture as metaphysically extravagant, and suggest in its place an interpretation of possible worlds as consistent, maximally complete sets of descriptions of or propositions about the world, so that a "possible world" is conceived of as a complete description of a way the world could be – rather than a world that is that way. (Lewis describes their position, and similar positions such as those advocated by Alvin Plantinga and Peter Forrest, as "ersatz modal realism", arguing that such theories try to get the benefits of possible worlds semantics for modal logic "on the cheap", but that they ultimately fail to provide an adequate explanation.) Saul Kripke, in Naming and Necessity, took explicit issue with Lewis's use of possible worlds semantics, and defended a stipulative account of possible worlds as purely formal (logical) entities rather than either really existent worlds or as some set of propositions or descriptions.

Wikipedia | Possible world
[Image: extraordinarywoo-sig.jpg]
Reply



Messages In This Thread
RE: The Ontological Argument for the Existence of God - by Cato - December 17, 2015 at 10:10 pm
RE: The Ontological Argument for the Existence of God - by Cato - December 17, 2015 at 11:33 pm
RE: The Ontological Argument for the Existence of God - by Cato - December 19, 2015 at 12:59 pm
RE: The Ontological Argument for the Existence of God - by Cato - December 24, 2015 at 10:26 am
RE: The Ontological Argument for the Existence of God - by Angrboda - December 22, 2015 at 5:39 am

Possibly Related Threads...
Thread Author Replies Views Last Post
  Are miracles evidence of the existence of God? ido 74 9204 July 24, 2020 at 12:59 pm
Last Post: The Grand Nudger
  10 Syllogistic arguments for Gods existence Otangelo 84 16488 January 14, 2020 at 5:59 pm
Last Post: Abaddon_ire
  How to destroy any argument for God Drich 46 8014 October 9, 2019 at 9:02 am
Last Post: Mister Agenda
  How To Support Any Argument For God BrianSoddingBoru4 0 645 August 26, 2019 at 4:52 pm
Last Post: BrianSoddingBoru4
  How To Easily Defend Any Argument For God BrianSoddingBoru4 5 1197 August 22, 2019 at 9:13 pm
Last Post: The Valkyrie
  Quantum Physics Proves God’s Existence blue grey brain 15 2902 January 2, 2019 at 11:08 pm
Last Post: The Grand Nudger
  Why are you chasing the idea of the existence of a God? WinterHold 26 4828 August 7, 2018 at 2:05 pm
Last Post: The Grand Nudger
  11-Year-Old College Grad Wants to Pursue Astrophysics to Prove God’s Existence Silver 49 10292 August 2, 2018 at 4:51 pm
Last Post: Pat Mustard
  Very short argument for God (another clear proof) Mystic 123 31644 January 26, 2018 at 8:54 pm
Last Post: Succubus
  Another argument for God. Mystic 52 12447 January 24, 2018 at 3:28 pm
Last Post: uncool



Users browsing this thread: 2 Guest(s)