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Saint Anselm's Ontological Argument Analysis

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Saint Anselm is known as one of the most important Christian philosophers of his time and still today. He is best known for his ontological argument regarding God’s existence and is consistently referenced for his work regarding the nature of God, redemption, freedom, and sin. Anselm believes God to be something “…that which nothing greater can be conceived” (Anselm, 40). He finds support and uses personal and commonsense logic to support his main ideas. His argument is broken up into several topics that reference the concept of just considering the idea of God, His true existence, considering the impossibility of God’s nonexistence, and a few others. The true test though, is to see if Anselm’s support towards these ideas are one’s that are realistic. Anselm’s main premise is the concept that God is “…something than which nothing greater can be conceived” (Anselm, 40). Although it may seem redundant, this statement is saying that God is the greatest thing of all things. There is nothing bigger or greater than Him. This concept seems far-fetched to the average joe of today’s world because our minds cannot fathom anything so great. Anselm supports this concept initially by using the example, saying “When a painter plans out a painting, he has it in his understanding, but – not yet having produced it – he doesn’t yet think it exists” (Anselm, 40). This …show more content…

God’s existence is so extravagant and so intense that the human mind cannot simply fathom something so great. Our brains weren’t made to understand anything so great because then we could imagine something greater which would make God that that which anything could be conceived. He created us, making us a smaller part of him which means that our brains are smaller than Him and his existence. This supports Anselm’s argument that God is that that which nothing greater can be

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Question No. 10 Answer: Anselm guaranteed his ontological argument as confirmation of the existence of God, whom he depicted as that being for which no more noteworthy can be imagined. A god that does not exist can 't be that than which no more noteworthy can be considered, as existence would make it more prominent. Hence, as per St. Anselm, the concept of God essentially entails His existence. He denies Gaunilo a Godless epistemology. Gaunilo scrutinized Anselm 's argument by utilizing the same reasoning, by means of reductio commercial absurdum, to demonstrate the existence of the mythical Lost Island, the best or absolute best island possible: if the island of which we are thinking does not exist, it can 't be the best possible island, for,

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The argument for God’s existence is that God is a perfect being, he is infinite, independent, supremely intelligent, and supremely powerful. Descartes goes on to talk about how God exists because he can conceive of him as better than himself (AD 40). God is perfect and perfect at everything, and was the first thing that sent everything into motion (AD 45). God is the ultimate cause.

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Before restating the Anselm’s argument for the existence of God, it is important to understand who Anselm was and what might have compelled him to come up with the ontological argument for the existence of God. Anselm’s background information will be helpful in evaluating the validity and reliability of his arguments. Anselm was born in Italy in c. 1033. In 1063, he entered the famous monastery. In 1093, he moved to England, having been appointed Archbishop of Canterbury.

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His work was a prayer addressed to God. According to St. Anselm, “we have already received faith”. But there has to be a point where faith has to make sense. We must understand what faith is. In attempting to understand our faith, there is an attempt to rationally prove God.

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The Ontological Argument/The ‘Catholic’ View The ontological argument , conceived by St Anselm, claims it is better to exist in reality than understanding so it would be contradictory for God (conceptually the greatest being that can be conceived) to exist only in understanding. Therefore, God exists! The greatest flaw in this argument as pointed out by Gaunilo in his ‘Perfect Island’ argument, is it invites parody.

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Secondly, the lack of complete understanding of a God that is greater than any other is the basis of Anselm’s argument. In other words, one needs not understand how it is that no other greater God exists, because it is not possible to do that. It is the concept of understanding that such a being exists that is important. As long as it is possible to have such a state, then the definition given by Anselm is

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As the last proof is not as secure as the first two. The “infinite perfection of god” stands out the most promising as it capitalizes on the perfection of a single being. It is irrefutable that the perfect being is infinitely perfect since perfection is ideal. As well as the ability of the universe to only produce one perfect simple God. If there were to be many perfect Gods, they would be one in the same and the same being.

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