88 - Graham Oppy: Ontological Arguments and the Existence of God

Graham Oppy is Professor of Philosophy at Monash University. Before that, he did his undergraduate work in Melbourne and his graduate work at Princeton. Though Graham is best known as a philosopher of religion, he has also published on the philosophy of math, language, aesthetics, and more. In this episode, Robinson and Graham begin by discussing the nature of argument: What makes an argument successful? What’s a good argument? How should we think about arguments in areas of deep disagreement? They then move on to a discussion of ontological arguments in the philosophy of religion, where one argues for the existence of god—or gods—without any prior assumptions.

Ontological Arguments: https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/ontological-arguments/

Majesty of Reason: https://www.youtube.com/@MajestyofReason

OUTLINE

00:00 In This Episode…

00:40 Introduction

05:04 Graham and the Philosophy of Religion

11:45 Arguments

14:12 What Makes a Good Argument?

38:00 How to Talk Around Deep Disagreement

48:23 How Arguments Vary Across Disciplines

56:13 Ontological Arguments for the Existence of God

01:31:29 Cosmological Arguments

Robinson’s Website: http://robinsonerhardt.com

Robinson Erhardt researches symbolic logic and the foundations of mathematics at Stanford University. Join him in conversations with philosophers, scientists, weightlifters, artists, and everyone in-between.