Proslogion

Anselm of Canterbury, a Benedictine monk who was appointed Archbishop of Canterbury in 1093, composed a well-known ontological proof for the existence of God, which appears in this work of his. It reads as follows: "Therefore, Lord, who grant understanding to faith, grant me that, in so far as you kn Leggi tutto

(Excerpts) My head is still spinning

Anselm offers in this short text what philosophers have called the ontological argument since at least the time of Immanuel Kant. This first point is important, since, so far as we know, no other commentators, such as Descartes and Leibniz, refer to Anselm’s supposed proof of the existence God in su Leggi tutto

É a Anselmo de Cantuária que se deve um dos mais famosos e influentes argumentos para a existência de Deus, que ainda hoje anima discussões teóricas. É um argumento puramente dedutivo e que parte de premissas não epistemicamente justificadas (pelo menos não directamente) e que, por isso, caso seja s Leggi tutto

It is not excessive to say that St Anselm was one of the first medieval philosophers that utilized reasoning in his argument in proving the existence of God in the Middle Ages. He lived in an age where the dynamism of St Thomas Acquinas has been replaced by rigid and rote learning of scholasticism,

Very hard to wrap your head around. Once you understand, it is hard to not see how simple, yet intellectually profitable Anselm's argument is. Very easy to read, exceedingly difficult to truly understand. God bless you St. Anselm Edit: Originally written for the Proslogion but intended for the Proslogi Leggi tutto

Fun easy to read and short piece that was tremendously influential in the history of philosophy. I was pleasantly surprised in how devotional this work ended up being.

I have for about a year been trying to get to St. Anselm of Canterbury and now I finally get to give my short impression of him and his innovation that changed philosophy. One of the main reasons I found out about him is that his feast day happens to be on my birthday so, yay for coincidence. While

Anselm makes a historic argument in this book — but is chronically misunderstood. I do not wish to spoil it for everyone, but if you remove the argument from the book, of course it doesn’t work. In fact, you need only read the first sentence of the introduction to disprove Anselm’s argument as the m Leggi tutto

I'm not sure if the argument in the book is sound. If I have to pick, I'll say no. However, Anselm is a fantastically original and nimble thinker. This book is a joy to read, and bloody challenging to think through, even if you decide it's nonsense in the end. Anselm was not standing on the shoulder Leggi tutto