Kant’s “Refutation” of the Ontological Argument

Abstract

Kant’s compressed and tightly knit analysis of the ontological argument in the Transcendental Dialectic (Chapter III, Section 4) contains fourteen paragraphs. The first paragraph is introductory and summarizes his general position as to the relative functions of Understanding and Reason and acts as a link between his preceding argument and what follows. The last two paragraphs contain his conclusions. The eleven paragraphs in between have usually been divided into four groups, and each group has been taken to represent a different phase or stage in his case against the ontological proof.¹ Although Kant’s Section does lend itself to this kind of division, the groups of four criticisms so obtained admit of a still further division into a set of three criticisms of a polemical and negative character and one of a more direct and positive character, separated by a highly significant transitional paragraph (usually, but mistakenly, counted as the last paragraph of the third criticism).