O questionamento kantiano do argumento ontológico sobre a existência de Deus

Abstract

The aim of the present research is to approach the arguments of the work entitled Critique of Pure Reason (1781/1787) by Immanuel Kant, in which he presents his most relevant notes for his philosophical project, which is the foundation of the transcendental philosophy, which is characterized as a way of knowing objects a priori, in general. Based on the argumentative line of the Critique of Pure Reason, the questions developed by Kant, in relation to metaphysics, note the concern in deciding the fate of metaphysics and the possibility of progress that will elevate metaphysics to the status of science, starting from a complete revolution. We will develop the investigation based on the distinction between analytical and synthetic judgments and their definitions, as well as the discussion on the possibility of a priori synthetic judgments, the tables of judgments and categories. Kantian criticism unfolds in an attempt to establish what can be known and how it can be known a priori, regardless of sensitive experience. Following the approaches presented in the critical division, the notion of existence appears in at least three relevant passages: 1) in Transcendental Logic, in Transcendental Analytics, in the explanation of the modality of judgments; 2) in the Transcendental Dialectic, in which the part dedicated to refuting the proof of the existence of God is found; and 3) in the Third Section, entitled - Of the speculative arguments in behalf of the existence of a supreme being in Chapter III, - The ideal of Pure Reason. This whole journey is intended to present the critical elements in which Kant points to the possible experience and existence, in which the meanings of the concepts contained in his work are present. The presentation of the notion of the existence of God will be exposed in this work, starting from the discussion of the so-called “ontological argument”, formulated to prove the existence of God by Saint Anselm of Aosta, Archbishop of Canterbury, who elaborated a purely rational argument based on faith. In this way, the present investigation proposes to make an exposition of these passages and to discuss the approaches developed by the medieval author on the problem of the notion of existence, thus providing subsidies to understand the concept of a “supreme being”, and discussion on the existence or not of God throughout the work of Immanuel Kant.