Open AccessA NEW DEFENCE OF ANSELMIAN THEISM
Author(s) -
Nagasawa Yujin
Publication year - 2008
Publication title -
the philosophical quarterly
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.095
H-Index - 45
eISSN - 1467-9213
pISSN - 0031-8094
DOI - 10.1111/j.1467-9213.2008.578.x
Subject(s) - theism , argument (complex analysis) , philosophy , epistemology , chemistry , biochemistry
A bstract Anselmian theists, for whom God is the being than which no greater can be thought, usually infer that he is an omniscient, omnipotent and omnibenevolent being. Critics have attacked these claims by numerous distinct arguments, such as the paradox of the stone, the argument from God's inability to sin, and the argument from evil. Anselmian theists have responded to these arguments by constructing an independent response to each. This way of defending Anselmian theism is uneconomical. I seek to establish a new defence which undercuts almost all the existing arguments against Anselmian theism at once. In developing this defence, I consider the possibility that the Anselmian God is not an omniscient, omnipotent and omnibenevolent being.