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Ontological argument - Quiz
Contributed by: Howes
  • 1. In which book did René Descartes present his ontological argument?
A) Passions of the Soul
B) Discourse on the Method
C) Meditation, Book V
D) Principles of Philosophy
  • 2. How did Descartes describe the nature of his ontological arguments compared to Anselm's?
A) Identical in structure and intent
B) Less formal and more natural intuition
C) More formal and strictly mathematical
D) More complex and logically exhaustive
  • 3. What geometric example did Descartes use to compare the deduction of God's existence?
A) The sizes of angles in a triangle
B) The volume of a sphere
C) The area of a square
D) The circumference of a circle
  • 4. What does Descartes assume regarding the nature of existence?
A) It is a subjective illusion
B) It is an external quality
C) It is independent of perfection
D) It is a predicate of a perfection
  • 5. What does Descartes conclude about a 'supremely perfect God who does not exist'?
A) The notion is unintelligible
B) The notion is a paradox
C) The notion is factually correct
D) The notion is logically possible
  • 6. What is the primary difference mentioned between Spinoza's argument and Descartes's?
A) Spinoza does not move straight from conceivability to existence
B) Spinoza argues that existence is not a perfection
C) Spinoza denies the existence of God
D) Spinoza relies on physical evidence rather than deduction
  • 7. According to the text, where do man's ideas come from according to Spinoza?
A) From innate sensory perception
B) From an external cause
C) From divine revelation
D) From his own imagination
  • 8. What must exist prior to the human thought of God, according to Spinoza?
A) Mathematical logic
B) Human language
C) The universe
D) God
  • 9. What title is given to the section in Spinoza's 'Short Treatise' that discusses God?
A) Proof of the Absolute Being
B) The Nature of Divine Existence
C) On the Origin of Ideas
D) Treating of God and What Pertains to Him
  • 10. Descartes compares the idea of God to the idea of what?
A) Any shape or number
B) Any physical object or person
C) Any historical event or figure
D) Any moral virtue or vice
  • 11. Which scholar identified three major stages in the development of the ontological argument?
A) Xenophanes
B) Daniel Dombrowski
C) Norman Malcolm
D) Avicenna
  • 12. In which work did Anselm of Canterbury document his ontological argument?
A) Metaphysics
B) Critique of Pure Reason
C) Proslogion
D) Republic
  • 13. How did Anselm define God in Chapter 2 of the Proslogion?
A) The creator of the universe
B) An infinite and perfect spirit
C) A being than which no greater can be conceived
D) The necessary foundation of morality
  • 14. Which philosopher is mentioned as a potential predecessor to Anselm regarding the ontological argument?
A) Thomas Aquinas
B) Aristotle
C) Avicenna
D) John Locke
  • 15. Anselm's argument in Chapter 2 is generally regarded as what type of logical reasoning?
A) Inductive reasoning
B) Syllogistic fallacy
C) Reductio ad absurdum
D) Empirical observation
  • 16. What does Anselm argue about a being that can be conceived not to exist?
A) It is greater than a necessary being
B) Something greater can be conceived
C) It is logically impossible
D) It does not exist in the mind
  • 17. Which philosopher considers Anselm's Chapter 3 argument to be different and stronger than the one in Chapter 2?
A) David Hume
B) Norman Malcolm
C) Daniel Dombrowski
D) Xenophanes
  • 18. The text notes that before Anselm, the perception of God as the greatest possible being was:
A) Widely described among ancient Greek philosophers
B) Completely unknown to ancient thinkers
C) Rejected by all early writers
D) Exclusively a Christian concept
  • 19. What kind of argument is an ontological argument?
A) A sociological argument
B) A deductive argument
C) An empirical argument
D) An inductive argument
  • 20. What is the 'Proof of the Truthful' (Burhan al-Siddiqin) associated with?
A) Gottfried Leibniz
B) Ibn Sina
C) Kurt Gödel
D) Gaunilo of Marmoutiers
  • 21. Whose ontological argument centered on the idea of a 'clear and distinct' idea of a supremely perfect being?
A) David Hume
B) Immanuel Kant
C) René Descartes
D) C. D. Broad
  • 22. Who attempted to prove that a 'supremely perfect' being is a coherent concept in the 18th century?
A) Gottfried Leibniz
B) Dana Scott
C) Gaunilo of Marmoutiers
D) Norman Malcolm
  • 23. Who formulated an ontological argument using modal logic in private notes?
A) Alvin Plantinga
B) Saint Anselm
C) Kurt Gödel
D) René Descartes
  • 24. What analogy did Gaunilo of Marmoutiers use to criticize the ontological argument?
A) A perfect human
B) A perfect mountain
C) A perfect machine
D) A perfect island
  • 25. Which philosopher dismissed the coherence of a 'maximally great being' by suggesting its attributes were incompatible?
A) C. D. Broad
B) Ibn Sina
C) Saint Anselm
D) Alvin Plantinga
  • 26. Which of the following is listed as a contemporary defender of the ontological argument?
A) Gaunilo of Marmoutiers
B) Immanuel Kant
C) David Hume
D) Yujin Nagasawa
  • 27. What logic did Alvin Plantinga use to propose an alternative ontological argument?
A) Statistical probability
B) Empirical observation
C) Aristotelian logic
D) Modal logic
  • 28. According to the Kantian view, what reasoning is used to found ontological arguments?
A) A posteriori reasoning
B) Empirical reasoning
C) A priori reasoning
D) Inductive reasoning
  • 29. Which subclassification of ontological arguments invokes definitions?
A) Mereological
B) Definitional
C) Modal
D) Meinongian
  • 30. Arguments that assert a distinction between different categories of existence are called what?
A) Conceptual
B) Meinongian
C) Higher-order
D) Definitional
  • 31. Which subclassification uses the idea of God existing solely for those who have experienced him?
A) Modal
B) Conceptual
C) Meinongian
D) Experiential
  • 32. Which subclassification draws on the theory of the whole-part relation?
A) Mereological
B) Definitional
C) Hegelian
D) Higher-order
  • 33. In the Argument of the Righteous, what serves as the middle term?
A) The unmoved mover.
B) The truth.
C) Cause and effect.
D) Motion.
  • 34. What is the title of the main work in which Mulla Sadra describes his argument?
A) al-asfar al-arba'a.
B) The Essence of Reality.
C) The Metaphysics of Being.
D) The Four Journeys of Logic.
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