The Ontological argument

... must have three sides. But if you do not have a triangle you do not have three sides." By stating this he maintains that 'existence is not a predicate´. He says that if existence was a predicate than it would be something that a thing either had or lacked, such as blond hair. However, this creates a paradox because it suggests that something does not exist, and how could such a thing lack, or process anything if it did not exist? Kant says that statements are either analytic or synthetic. Analytic statements are a-priori, true by definition, like a coherence truth. It is an abstract, metaphysical, somewhat imaginary concept of the mind. Whereas, synthetic statements are a-posteri, a truth that is proved with reference to experience like a correspondence truth. It is real, can be empirical proved, is scientific and can be seen in the world. Kant was the first philosopher to introduce and use this concept. Kant says that René uses an analytic statement and so disagrees with his approach to the argument, just because you can think about something, doesn´t mean it exists. Modern versions of the ontological argument include Norman Malcolm´s (1911 - 1990) attempt. In his work he uses the word 'impossible´ twice in two slightly different contexts. As there are two types of truth, there are two different types of 'impossibility´. The first is an unlikely impossible, for example for someone to suggest that a single mother who works at a local corner shop could marry Prince Harry we be classed as impossible. However, it isn´t totally impossible, it could happen but it i ...