St Anselm's Existence

Saint Anselm:

Saint Anselm was a brilliant philosopher who brought thought-provoking ideas to the world. His mission was to provide evidence that proved the existence of God. The way in which he found the ability to prove the existence of God was through conjuring possible reasons for existence but then finding contradictions within those reasons that only lead back to the solution that there is only one higher power.

1.One of Anselm’s ideas was called Monologian. This was based on the idea that all good things come from something of ultimate goodness. There has to be something that other things derive from.

He presented three plausible examples for which things can exist:

i. For everything to exist through one thing.

ii. For everything

If (ii) is true, then “there is surely some one power or nature of self-existing that they have in order to exist through themselves” (M 3); in that case, “all things exist more truly through that one thing than through the several things that cannot exist without that one thing” (M 3). So (ii) collapses into (i), and there is some one thing through which all things exist. That one thing, of course, exists through itself, and so it is greater than all the other things. It is therefore “best and greatest and supreme among all existing things” (M 3)” (Saint Anselm).

By using this somewhat complicated and confusing method, Anselm was able to make a reasonable argument that supported the existence of God. The first two possible reasons for existence just don’t make nearly as much sense as the third. He was able to use the first two to contradict each other leaving the third as the only logical explanation. But getting to this conclusion was a long and wordy process. He realized that this idea of Monologian may be somewhat complicated and wanted to simplify and be more clear about his notions. This is where his next idea came into

Another one of Anselm’s ideas was the divine nature of God. Since God is the greatest thing that one can imagine, He therefore exists and is omnipotent. This also concludes that God “must be just, self-existent, invulnerable to suffering, merciful, timelessly eternal, non-physical, non-composite, and so forth. For if he lacked any of these qualities, he would be less than the greatest conceivable being, which is impossible” (Saint Anselm). There isn’t much of standard for how one would be considered the highest or greatest since everyone has different ideals and sees the world differently. Therefore, this idea goes off having and not having. It is better to be kind than mean. So, though everyone may not agree that being kind makes one the highest, people would agree that being mean makes one lesser than the highest. This is how Anselm’s idea works. Because God is the highest, he would not possess any negative characteristics that would make Him any less. So all positive attributes that can be conjured are what God consists