A Mechanically Assisted Examination of Begging the Question in Anselm's Ontological Argument

John Rushby

Paper presented at 2nd World Congress on Logic and Religion, Warsaw, June 2017

Abstract

I use mechanized verification to examine several first- and higher-order renditions of Anselm's Ontological Argument against the charge of begging the question. I propose three different criteria for a premise to beg the question in fully formal proofs and find that one or another applies to all the renditions examined. My purpose is to demonstrate that mechanized verification provides an effective and reliable technique to perform these analyses; readers may decide whether the forms of question begging so identified affect their interest in the Argument or its various renditions.

Published abstract: PDF

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Slides

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BibTeX Entry

@inproceedings{Rushby:LR17,
  AUTHOR = {John Rushby},
  TITLE = {A Mechanically Assisted Examination of
    Begging the Question in {Anselm's Ontological Argument}},
  BOOKTITLE = {The 2nd World Congress on Logic and Religion},
  YEAR = 2017,
  ADDRESS = {Warsaw, Poland},
  MONTH = jun
}
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