Original scientific paper

https://doi.org/10.26362/20180301

Gasking’s Parody Re-examined

Duško Prelević ; Department of Philosophy at the Faculty of Philosophy – University of Belgrade, Čika Ljubina 18–20, 11000 Belgrade, Serbia

Abstract

Gasking’s parody of Anselm’s ontological argument is primarily based on the idea that the greater disability of the creator makes the achievement more impressive, and that, therefore, the non-existent God would be a greater creator of the universe than the existent God would be. On the contrary, I argue that either the non-existent God cannot create anything existent, or, if we introduce Meinongian metaphysics in order to save the parody, that non-existence would cease to be the most formidable handicap within the domain of fictional characters, or that encoded achievements need not be more impressive than exemplified achievements. These insights suggest that Gasking’s parody does not work.

Keywords

Ability; achievement; Gasking’s parody; Meinongianism; the ontological argument.

Hrčak ID:

217926

URI

https://hrcak.srce.hr/217926

Publication date:

27.12.2018.

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