What is ontological perfection?

Answer 1

[In the absence of someone else answering, who has the person's name etc. .]

I do not know the author offhand, but someone constructed a proof that God exists, that included this term.

The proof claimed as follows (roughly).

• We have a conception of "perfection".

• Therefore, perfection exists. (That is, it is real).

• God is the only (conceptually) perfect being.

• Therefore, God exists.

(Actually, the proof homes in on God being perfect in respect of existing, particularly.)

"Ontology" is thinking about the concept of being; it is philosophy about whether anything exists, whether various particular things exist (such as numbers, God, us), and what does "exist" mean, anyway.

"Ontological perfection" (which term was pretty much coined for this proof) means "the concept of perfection, to do with being" - roughly: "being really, really good at existing".

(For my money) the core difficulty with this proof is as follows.

It is common for philosophers to appeal to things that everyone naturally believes. For instance, in an argument about morality, one might claim that rape is wrong, and expect everyone* to agree. This is called an appeal to "intuition".

The first line, above, appealed to the "intuition" of the concept of perfection. The trouble with this - going back to the example of rape - is that there is a difference between • understanding the concept of rape, • believing that rape occurs, and • believing that it is morally wrong (or not).

That is: just because I understand the concept of perfection does not mean that I believe that perfect things exist. (I might, for instance, think that the concept of a perfect dive exists, but also believe that it is not possible to actually do one.)

* That is, everyone except Peter Singer.