Development
Although the ontological argument may have been implicit in the works of Greek philosophers such as Plato and the Neoplatonists, the mainstream view is that the ontological argument was first clearly stated and developed by Anselm of Canterbury. Some scholars argued that the Islamic philosopher Avicenna (Ibn Sina) developed a special kind of ontological argument before Anselm, but other scholars have doubted this position. Daniel Dombrowski marked three major stages in the development of the argument: Anselm's initial explicit formulation; the eighteenth century criticisms of Kant and Hume; and the identification of a second ontological argument in Anselm's Proslogion by twentieth century philosophers.
Read more about this topic: Ontological Argument
Famous quotes containing the word development:
“As long as fathers rule but do not nurture, as long as mothers nurture but do not rule, the conditions favoring the development of father-daughter incest will prevail.”
—Judith Lewis Herman (b. 1942)
“This was the Eastham famous of late years for its camp- meetings, held in a grove near by, to which thousands flock from all parts of the Bay. We conjectured that the reason for the perhaps unusual, if not unhealthful development of the religious sentiment here, was the fact that a large portion of the population are women whose husbands and sons are either abroad on the sea, or else drowned, and there is nobody but they and the ministers left behind.”
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“The proper aim of education is to promote significant learning. Significant learning entails development. Development means successively asking broader and deeper questions of the relationship between oneself and the world. This is as true for first graders as graduate students, for fledging artists as graying accountants.”
—Laurent A. Daloz (20th century)