1 - Anselm

Summary

I begin with consideration of key terms in the argument developed in Proslogion II: ‘greatness’, ‘existence in the mind’ and ‘existence in reality’. I argue that charity enjoins us to recast Anselm’s argument in terms of concepts; when we do so, the recast argument is not defeated by the classical objections of Aquinas and Kant. However, the resulting argument is ambiguous, and, however the ambiguity is resolved, the argument fails: either it proves only the reality of something non-divine, or it fails to take us beyond the thinkability of a divine entity, or it is question-begging.