Understanding Anselm's Ontological Argument

✍ Scribed by Guy Jackson

• Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan
• Year: 2023
• Tongue: English
• Leaves: 82
• Category: Library

✦ Synopsis

Anselm's ontological argument is one of the most fascinating, most controversial, and most misunderstood arguments in the entire history of Western thought. By centring the argument firmly in the Neoplatonic tradition within which Anselm was writing, Understanding Anselm's Ontological Argument sheds fresh light and clarity on this enigmatic piece of philosophy. It argues that, far from resting upon a fallacy or illegitimately attempting to define God into existence, Anselm's argument is a powerful and plausible philosophical proof, and deserves to be taken seriously as such.

Written to be understandable for specialists and non-specialists alike, Understanding Anselm's Ontological Argument is ideal for scholars and researchers in philosophy of religion

and philosophy in the Middle Ages (especially Neoplatonism) as well as for medievalists in general.

✦ Table of Contents

Contents
1: Introduction
2: Anselm in Context: Neoplatonism
The Theory of Forms
The Divine Nature
The Ladder of Nature
The Nature of Cognition
Anselm’s Teachers
3: Anselm’s Ontological Argument
Anselm’s Ontological Argument and Neoplatonism
Interpretative Issues Regarding the Argument
4: Rebuttal of Rebuttals
Gaunilo of Marmoutiers
The Lost Island and Other Parody Arguments
Does that than Which Nothing Greater Can Be Thought Exist in the Intellect?
Aquinas’ Criticisms of the Ontological Argument
Solution to the Above Difficulties
Is Existence a Predicate?
Kant’s Second Objection to the Ontological Argument
5: Conclusion
Appendix A: Anselm’s Ontological Argument (Proslogion 2-3)
Appendix B: The Life of St. Anselm
Bibliography
List of Abbreviations Used
List of Works Cited
Index