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Since God is an unlimited being, God's existence does not causally depend on the existence of other beings as ours does (our parents)

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God is conceived as an unlimited being, a being that cannot be limited. Referencing Spinoza, lack of moisture can prevent trees from existing in certain regions. However it would be contrary to the concept of God as an unlimited being to suggest that anything could prevent God from existing.

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You cannot just exist because you are the greatest being that can be conceived. If you are the greatest being that can be conceived does not mean you exist. Greatness and existence are two entirely different matters entirely

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You cannot just exist because you are the greatest being that can be conceived. If you are the greatest being that can be conceived does not mean you exist. Greatness and existence are two entirely different matters entirely

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Since Malcolm disagreed with Anslem's Proslogian II, he believed that greatness and existence are not synonymous. He used the example of existence being very different from, say, the property of lovingness.

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Norman Malcolm was born in 1911, in Kansas, USA. He studied at Cambridge University where he attended lectures on the philosophical foundations of mathematics by Ludwig Wittgenstein during 1939 and became one of his closest friends.

He served in the Navy during the Second World War and when he returned he resided in Cambridge with his wife and son. During this time he frequently corresponded with Wittgenstein and he used many of Wittgenstein's ideas to help form his ontological argument.

In 1947, he became part of the faculty of the Cornell University, where he taught until his retirement. In 1959, his book 'Dreaming' was published, in which he elaborated Wittgenstein's question as to whether it really mattered if people who tell dreams "really had these images while they slept, or whether it merely seems so to them on waking". This work was also a response to Descartes' 'Meditations'. Although the ontological argument wasn't his main works, his arguments are still used today to defend it.

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Issues with Malcolm's argument - Incoherency 

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Issues with Malcolm's argument - Incoherency 

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Within premise 9 of his argument, Malcolm has no evidence that the statement is true, and has admitted he can think of no general proof to aid his theory. However, it is regarded that the argument is sound until proven incoherent, as there is no presumption to lead into the statement that the concept of God is incoherent.

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Malcolm agrees that contingent existence is not a property, but argues that Kant does not show that necessary existence is not a property. Kant discusses the claim ‘God exists’, but he doesn’t satisfactorily distinguish it from the claim ‘God exists necessarily ’. Malcom believed that these two claims are not equal. To state that God exists necessarily is an analytic statement that derives from the statement “God Exists” as it adds more information to the concept of God.

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Differentiation from Anselm (Proslogian III)

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Differentiation from Anselm (Proslogian III)

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Malcolm believes Anselm was providing a different argument in Proslogian Chapter III – It is not existence that is perfect; the greater being is one whose non-existence is inconceivable, compared to a being whose non-existence is conceivable. The claim "if God exists, then God exists necessarily" is compatible with the possibility that God doesn’t exist at all.

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Simplified list of Malcolm's premises and conclusion 

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Simplified list of Malcolm's premises and conclusion 

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1              Either God exists or God does not exist.

2              God cannot come into existence or go out of existence.

3              If God exists, God cannot cease to exist.

4              Therefore, if God exists, God’s existence is necessary.

5              If God does not exist, God cannot come into existence.

6              Therefore, if God does not exist, God’s existence is impossible.

7              Therefore, God’s existence is either necessary or impossible.

8              God’s existence is only impossible if the concept of God is self-contradictory.

9              The concept of God is not self-contradictory.

10           Therefore, God’s existence is not impossible.

11           Therefore (from (7) and (10)), God exists necessarily.