Norman Malcolm

Norman Malcolm (1911–1990) was an American philosopher who made significant contributions to the philosophy of religion, particularly regarding the ontological argument for God's existence. A student and close friend of Ludwig Wittgenstein at Cambridge, Malcolm became a leading proponent of ordinary language philosophy. His influential 1960 essay "Anselm's Ontological Arguments" distinguished between two forms of the ontological argument in Anselm's Proslogion, defending a modal version that claimed God's existence is either impossible or necessary. Malcolm argued that since God's existence is not impossible, it must be necessary. His work also explored religious belief through a Wittgensteinian lens, examining the grammar of religious language and the nature of religious conviction. In "The Groundlessness of Belief" (1977), he argued that religious belief operates as a distinct form of life not requiring rational justification. Malcolm's philosophical approach to religion emphasized the sui generis character of religious discourse and challenged conventional epistemological critiques of theistic belief.