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...the paths leading to -this goal begin either from determinate experience... or they start from experience which is purely indeterminate ... or finally they abstract from all experience, and argue completely a priori, from mere concepts, to the existence of a supreme cause. Kant, Critique of Pure Reason, A59O/B618
Kant tells us that there are exactly three ways of proving the existence of God by speculative reason. In the first, we begin from "determinate experience and the specific constitution of the world" and ascend from there to a supreme cause. "The world presents to us so immeasurable a stage of variety, order, purposiveness, and beauty" (A622/B650) that we may infer a sublime and wise cause (A625/B654). This is the physico-theological proof or argument from design. In the second, we begin from indeterminate experience or "experience of existence in general" and proceed once again to a cause. Here it does not matter what the world is like, but only that it exists; if the cosmos consisted of nothing but a speck of dust, we would still need to posit a cause for it. This is the cosmological proof. Finally, we may bypass experience altogether and argue "completely a priori, from mere concepts." This is the ontological proof, most audacious of all, as it premises nothing about what exists. In this chapter I examine what Kant has to say about the cosmological and ontological proofs. I consider them (as Kant does) as attempts to prove the existence not of the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, but of a primordial being, whose identity with the God of religion must be a matter of further argument or faith.
A. The Ontological Argument
The version of the ontological argument Kant considers is that of Descartes, not Anselm. 1 It may be set forth as follows:
1. The ens realissimum (i.e., God) is, by definition, the being who possesses all perfections.
. Since...
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