setting the ontological argument in its historical and philosophical context

1. Anselm in his context
Dr Brendan Larvor
www.herts.ac.uk/philosophy

2. Where did he live and work?
1033/34-1109
1033/34: born Aosta, Lombardy
1057: entered the monastery at Bec
1077: Monologion
1077-8: Proslogion
1078: became abbot of Bec.
1093: became archbishop of
Canterbury
1099: Cur Deus homo?
1109: died, possibly at Canterbury

3. What else was going on?
• 1008 Sweden's king, Olof Skötonung, converts to Christianity, and his subjects also convert.
• 1015 Canute the Great (Cnut I), conquered much of England. He marries the widow of the
king of Wessex, Ethelred (Aethelred II) – a devout Christian. Canute converts to Christianity
and proclaims his intention to rule in a Christian fashion, and he strengthens political and
commercial ties between England and Normandy.
• 1019 Canute's brother Harald, king of Denmark, dies, and Canute becomes king of Denmark
• 1020 Persian philosopher, theologican and medical theorist Avicenna is forty years-old.
• 1022 Putting people to death for heresy has begun in Europe, fourteen said to have been
burned to death at the city of Orleans on order of the French king, Robert the Pious.
• 1034 The archbishop of Milan, Heribert, seizes members of a group that rejects infant
baptism and has them burned to death.
• 1050 The globe is warming, which is improving crop production and increasing populations.
In Europe the "High Middle Ages" begins.

4. What else was going on?
• 1054 The Church in Rome accuses the Christians in Constantinople of allowing priests to
marry, re-baptizing Roman Christians and (falsely) of deleting "and the Son" from the Nicene
Creed. The Church in Rome excommunicates the Church in Constantinople, and the Church
of Constantinople excommunicates the Church in Rome.
• 1066 William I of Normandy ends Anglo-Saxon rule in England and becomes King of
England.
• 1077 Pope Gregory VII is in conflict with the "Roman Emperor" in Germanic lands, Henry IV.
The issue is Gregory's decree that anyone who accepts a church position offered by a layman
will be deposed and any layman who gives a church position to anyone would be
excommunicated. Gregory excommunicates and deposes Henry.
• 1080 Pope Gregory again excommunicates and deposes Henry. This time, Henry goes to
Italy with an army and takes power in Rome.

5. What else was going on?
• 1085 Christianity in Spain has been expanding against Muslims since Charlemagne took
Barcelona in 801. The Christian king of Castile and Galicia, Alfonso VI, expands militarily to
Toledo, in central Spain.
• 1095 The Muslim Seljuk Turks have conquered Jerusalem. They did not allow Christians to
visit their holy sites. Pope Urban II responds to a call for help from the emperor at
Constantinople and organizes what was to become known as the First Crusade. Urban II
announces that Christ will lead any army that goes to rescue the Holy Land.
• 1095 The first wave of the crusades begins, from Sweden into Finland, to convert the Finns to
Christianity.
• 1096 Pope Urban II condemns the crossbow as "hateful to God." There are no firearms as
yet, and the crossbow seems too deadly in its ability to pierce chain mail, and too impersonal,
unlike the sword and lance, which can be parried up close.
• 1099 Jerusalem falls to the Crusaders, who slaughter the city's Jewish and Muslim
inhabitants.

6. What else was going on?
• England and Normandy are both ruled by
Scandinavians who are only recently
converted
• Doctrinal disputes within Christianity and
competition from Judaism, Islam and
paganism.
• Scriptural argument ineffective.
• Challenge (of all three monotheisms) to
reconcile religious teaching with science and
logic (which were mostly of pagan origin)

7. Distribution of religions

8. Importance of Context I
• Why is the crucifixion of Jesus necessary for our
redemption?
• (Naively, this looks like a miscarriage of justice.)
• Anselm rejected the old view that humanity owes a
debt to the Devil
• Anselm developed the Satisfaction Theory of
Redemption
• Human sin is an insult to God’s honour.
• ‘Satisfaction’ depends on the status of the offended
person. But God is infinite, so requires infinite
satisfaction. Finite humanity cannot supply this
alone.
• This theory assumes the feudal social order
Cur Deus Homo [Why did God become Man?]

9. What is the point of the ontological argument?
• Clearly not an evangelizing text!
• Monologion: An example of Meditating about the Rational
Basis of Faith
• Proslogion: Faith Seeking Understanding
• Reason cannot replace faith: each requires the other
• These texts are addressed to God i.e. in a sense they are
prayers
• They were (according to the prefaces) requested by other
monks, so helpful to whatever it is that the monks were doing.
• But they are not merely working out the consequences of
premises adopted by faith. Anselm claims that the arguments
should work as logic even if faith is necessary.
• God’s help is needed because we are in sin.
Faith seeking understanding

10. Monologion
1. There is something that is the best, the greatest, the highest, of all existing things.
2. The same topic continued.
3. There is a Nature which exists through itself, which is the highest of all existing things, and
through which exists whatever is.
4. The same topic continued.
5. Just as this [Nature] exists through itself (per se) and [all] other things exist through it, so it
exists from itself (ex se) and [all] other things exist from it.
6. This Nature was not brought into existence through any assisting cause. Nevertheless, it
does not exist through nothing or from nothing. How it can be understood to exist through
itself and from itself.
7. ….
Table of contents: opening Platonic arguments

11. Monologion
62.…
63.How in the Supreme Spirit there is only one son and one who has a son.
64.Although inexplicable, this [teaching] must be believed.
65.How regarding [this] ineffable matter something true was argued.
66.Through the rational mind one comes nearest to knowing the Supreme Being.
67.The mind is the mirror and image of the Supreme Being.
68.The rational creature was made for loving the Supreme Being.
69.…
80. The Supreme Being exercises dominion over all things and rules all things and is the only
God.
Table of contents: the trinity and the role of reason

12. Proslogion
1. Arousal of the mind for contemplating God.
2. God truly [i.e., really] exists.
3. [God] cannot be thought not to exist.
4. How the Fool said in his heart that which cannot be thought.
Contents: the ontological argument

13. Proslogion
5. God is whatever it is better to be than not to be. Alone existing through Himself, He makes all
other things from nothing.
6. How God is able to perceive even though He is not something corporeal.
7. How He is omnipotent even though He cannot do many things.
8. How He is merciful and impassible.
9. How He who is completely and supremely just spares those who are evil. He is justly merciful
to them.
10.How He justly punishes and justly spares those who are evil.
11.How “all the ways of the Lord are mercy and truth,” and yet, “the Lord is just in all His ways.”
12.God is the life by which He lives, and similarly for similar [attributes].
13.How He alone is unlimited and eternal, although other spirits are [also] unlimited and eternal.
Contents: divine attributes; paradoxes

14. Proslogion
14.How and why God is both seen and not seen by those who seek Him.
15.He is greater than can be thought.
16.This is the inaccessible light in which He dwells.
17.Harmony, fragrance, succulence, softness, and beauty are present in God in their own
ineffable manner.
18.There are no parts in God or in the eternity which He is.
19.He is not in place or in time; but all things are in Him.
20.He is before and beyond all things—even eternal things.
21.Whether this [eternity] is one aeon or more than one.
22.He alone is what He is and who He is.
Contents: further attributes and paradoxes

15. Proslogion
23.The Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit are equally this [supreme] good. It is the one
necessary [Being], which is every good, complete good, and the only good.
24.A conjecture about what kind of good this is and about how great it is.
25.The kinds and the quantity of goods for those who enjoy this [Good].
26.Whether this is the full joy which the Lord promises.
Contents: trinity, no longer incomprehensible

16. Importance of context II
• We need to know what the key terms mean (‘greater than’, ‘in the mind’ vs ‘in reality’, ‘exists’,
‘fool’)—many of the attempted refutations turn on precise meanings.
• We can work out the intended meanings of these words only by reading the whole text and
the Monologion (and the reply to Gaunilo).
• In isolation, the definition of God in the ontological argument seems arbitrary (and coldly
logical).
• Reading the whole work shows that this definition gives Anselm a unified account of the
attributes of God, including necessary being, the trinity and His uniqueness.
• Anselm generalises the definition to “God is whatever it is better to be than not to be.” This
allows him to re-run versions of the ontological argument for all the divine attributes. It is an
argument schema.
• This gives him an account of God from a single principle, as Greek intellectual tradition
required.
How does all this help us read the ontological argument?

17. Further Reading
• Translations of Monologion and Proslogion
by Jasper Hopkins, free pdfs at
http://jasper-hopkins.info/
• Peter Millican; The One Fatal Flaw in
Anselm's Argument, Mind, Volume 113,
Issue 451, 1 July 2004, Pages 437–476
(also freely available as a pdf)
Always, always, read the original text