http://peanut1red.wordpress.com/2006/05/22/anselm/
Genna writes:
Can anyone explain Anselm's Proof for the Existence of God to me…??? We studied it in Metaphysics this semester but I didn't really understand and now it is driving me crazy.
St. Anselm argues from intentionality and necessary being.
That which nothing greater can be contemplated must by necessity exist.
Yes, the "aliquid Quo Majus Nihil Cogitari potest" Ontological Argument can cause a few brain cells to pop in exasperation. The trouble is that the argument is not a real proof at all. If it is as St. Anselm says, then God's existence is virtually self-evident.
Statements are made and when an apparent contradiction occurs, the reduction of contrary assertions to the level of absurdity brings the case to a close. A study of rhetoric and logic come in handy but the argument is simple, if not persuasive to everyone.
I must acknowledge, I have never known an athiest converted by it. Although it must nag at them as it does to believers.
It seems to help if you already believe in God for the argument to take hold. But it always seems too easy. St. Thomas Aquinas faults it because the one would have to prove the premise first, that there is actually something that exists than which nothing greater can be thought. Is the existence of God really so readily self-evident? Kant rejected it because of his own peculiar epistemology.
In the MONOLOGIUM, St. Anselm makes arguments for God's existence from his goodness and greatness (highest being). There is no infinite regression of causes and those things which are good implies a source that is the highest, goodness itself. God is the greatest God and the ground for everything else.
But your interest is in the PROSLOGIUM and so I will try to break it down:
Premise 1. God is that "something greater than which cannot be thought".
Premise 2. "Existing in reality" is greater than "to exist in a person's thought".
Summation: "Therefore something than which greater cannot be thought undoubtedly exists both in thought and in reality."
If God as that "something greater than which cannot be thought" is understood as only having intentional existence, then there is a contradiction because we can also conceive that "something greater than which cannot be thought" as existing in the real order.
Chapter 2 - That God Really Exists
Therefore, Lord, you who give knowledge of the faith, give me as much knowledge as you know to be fitting for me, because you are as we believe and that which we believe. And indeed we believe you are something greater than which cannot be thought. Or is there no such kind of thing, for "the fool said in his heart, 'there is no God'" (Ps. 13:1, 52:1)? But certainly that same fool, having heard what I just said, "something greater than which cannot be thought," understands what he heard, and what he understands is in his thought, even if he does not think it exists. For it is one thing for something to exist in a person's thought and quite another for the person to think that thing exists. For when a painter thinks ahead to what he will paint, he has that picture in his thought, but he does not yet think it exists, because he has not done it yet. Once he has painted it he has it in his thought and thinks it exists because he has done it. Thus even the fool is compelled to grant that something greater than which cannot be thought exists in thought, because he understands what he hears, and whatever is understood exists in thought. And certainly that greater than which cannot be understood cannot exist only in thought, for if it exists only in thought it could also be thought of as existing in reality as well, which is greater. If, therefore, that than which greater cannot be thought exists in thought alone, then that than which greater cannot be thought turns out to be that than which something greater actually can be thought, but that is obviously impossible. Therefore something than which greater cannot be thought undoubtedly exists both in thought and in reality.
Chapter 3 - That God Cannot be Thought Not to Exist
In fact, it so undoubtedly exists that it cannot be thought of as not existing. For one can think there exists something that cannot be thought of as not existing, and that would be greater than something which can be thought of as not existing. For if that greater than which cannot be thought can be thought of as not existing, then that greater than which cannot be thought is not that greater than which cannot be thought, which does not make sense. Thus that than which nothing can be thought so undoubtedly exists that it cannot even be thought of as not existing.
And you, Lord God, are this being. You exist so undoubtedly, my Lord God, that you cannot even be thought of as not existing. And deservedly, for if some mind could think of something greater than you, that creature would rise above the creator and could pass judgment on the creator, which is absurd. And indeed whatever exists except you alone can be thought of as not existing. You alone of all things most truly exists and thus enjoy existence to the fullest degree of all things, because nothing else exists so undoubtedly, and thus everything else enjoys being in a lesser degree. Why therefore did the fool say in his heart "there is no God," since it is so evident to any rational mind that you above all things exist? Why indeed, except precisely because he is stupid and foolish?
Chapter 4 - How the Fool Managed to Say in His Heart That Which Cannot be Thought
How in the world could he have said in his heart what he could not think? Or how indeed could he not have thought what he said in his heart, since saying it in his heart is the same as thinking it? But if he really thought it because he said it in his heart, and did not say it in his heart because he could not possibly have thought it - and that seems to be precisely what happened - then there must be more than one way in which something can be said in one's heart or thought. For a thing is thought in one way when the words signifying it are thought, and it is thought in quite another way when the thing signified is understood. God can be thought not to exist in the first way but not in the second. For no one who understands what God is can think that he does not exist. Even though he may say those words in his heart he will give them some other meaning or no meaning at all. For God is that greater than which cannot be thought. Whoever understands this also understands that God exists in such a way that one cannot even think of him as not existing.
Thank you, my good God, thank you, because what I believed earlier through your gift I now understand through your illumination in such a way that I would be unable not to understand it even if I did not want to believe you existed.
