Anselm On God
In the beginning of Scholasticism, one of
the biggest problems is the place of
dialectic, because it was often
inconsistent with theology. Anselm made a
moderate point between dialectic,
philosophy and theology; "We believe in
order to understand rather than
understand so that we may believe". From that
point of view, He proved the
existence of the God. In the "Proslogium",
Anselm began his dialectic
argument to define the God
as
‘something-than-which-nothing-greater-can-be-thought’. He stated, the
idea
of the greatest being cannot be separated from its existence, because if
it
lacks existence, a still more perfect being could be thought. Whereas, the
God
is necessary to exists, not just in the understanding. In order to
support the
proof, Anselm used an example of the Fool. He insisted that the
God existed even
in a mind of the Fool who said, there was no God. Anselm
stated, because when
the Fool hears
‘something-than-which-nothing-greater-can-be-thought’, he
understands what he
hears, and what he understands is in his mind. Thus, the God
is in his mind.
In the "A reply to the forgiving by a certain writer on behalf
on the Fool",
Gaunilo wrote an attack on Anselm’s argument that the god
could not be
conceptualized by human being. He stated that the fool would make
an
objection because if the god could exist in his mind, other unreal thing
also
could exist. He also criticised that the example of the painter could
not
support Anselm’s argument. Gaunilo supported his criticism using a parody
on
Anselm’s argument in which he proves the existence of the most
excellent
island. He replaced ‘the most excellent island’
for
‘something-than-which-nothing-greater-can-be- thought’ and show that
we
could prove the existence of almost anything using Anselm’s style of
argument.