Anselm and the Stoics

An interesting paper on the possible Stoic forerunner of Anselm's Proslogion argument from Luke Gelinas, originally published in Phronesis, 51 (2006) 49-73.

Closer to Truth, except in the case of Anselm

There is a marvellous resource for those interested in the big questions of philosophy at Closer to Truth. The interviews with philosophers such as Richard Swinburne, Alvin Plantinga, Peter Van Inwagen and Brian Leftow are particularly fascinating and incredibly informative. Swinburne provides a masterful summary of his cumulative inductive probability argument for God.

Needless to say, there is a particular area that lets the site down. The discussions which deal with the ontological argument do not deal with Anselm's argument, not because those engaged in the discussion think Anselm's argument is different from the ontological argument as they present it, but because they think that their accounts of ontological arguments provide accurate accounts of Anselm's argument. The problem is that they don't.

For Anselm, 'that than which a greater cannot be thought' is the middle term of his argument. (As a dialectician, he thinks ALL logical arguments have middle terms.) The middle term of an argument cannot be replaced by another middle term without changing the argument, unless of course the two terms are synonymous. But the usual suspect, 'perfect being', is not synonymous with 'that than which a greater cannot be thought'. If it were it would be possible to substitute it for 'that than which a greater cannot be thought' in Anselm's argument without changing the argument (by the rule of replacement). But the argument is changed if such a substitution is made. Anselm's proof of the existence of 'that than which a greater cannot be thought' in Proslogion 2, changes if we substitute 'perfect being'. If a perfect being only exists in the understanding, then I can think of something greater, does not deliver what Anselm's argument delivers. One has to make another change to this argument, changing 'greater' to 'more perfect'. We end up with different arguments: one concerning perfection; the other concerning epistemic claims about the greatness of God. This can be seen in the conclusion of Proslogion 15 that 'God is greater than can be thought'. This does not follow from the non-Anselmian version of the argument. However, it does follow from Anselm's version: since God is 'that than which a greater cannot be thought', and since I can think of something greater than Him if He is not greater than can be thought, then He is 'greater than can be thought'. There is no reason to think that this kind of greatness is required in a 'perfect being', and it would not follow in the non-Anselmian version of the argument that it is more perfect to be greater than can be thought.

Anselm invested much effort in discovering his middle term, it seems a unfortunate to discard it with such apparent ease.

'A distinguished volume'

Brian Davies has graciously reviewed my book (see previous post), and has made a some interesting criticisms, particularly in relation to the work of Elizabeth Anscombe. As I am aware that there are other reviews in the pipeline I will hold fire on responding, since I hope to publish 'a review of the reviews' on this blog at some point.

Recent publications - October 2009 - updated

Articles
B. Leftow, 'Anselmian Presentism' in Faith and Philosophy, 26 (2009) pp. 297-319.

K. Rogers, 'Back to Eternalism : a Response to Leftow's "Anselmian Presentism"' in Faith and Philosophy, 26 (2009) pp. 320-338.

Reviews
B. Davies, 'Ian Logan, Reading Anselm's Proslogion' in New Blackfriars, 90 (2009) 741-743.

G.R. Evans, 'Sandra Visser and Thomas Williams, Anselm' in Journal of Theological Studies, 60 (2009) 731-732.

Anselm in the New York Times

Thanks to Jay Diehl for sending me this link to a discussion of Anselm's Proslogion argument in the New York Times:

The Self-Thinking Thought

Whilst the article bears little relation to what Anselm's argument is actually about it shows its enduring fascination. Particularly enjoyable are the comments posted by what I hope are some of the less bright readers of the Times.

Recent publications - June 2009

Article
Toivo J. Holopainen, 'The Proslogion in Relation to the Monologion' in The Heythrop Journal, 50 (2009) 590-602.

Review
J.M. Idziak, 'Katherin Rogers, Anselm on Freedom' in International Journal for Philosophy of Religion, 65 (2009) 171-175.

Recent publications on Anselm

Books
- Ian Logan, Reading Anselm's Proslogion: The History of Anselm's Argument and its Significance Today, Ashgate 2009.
- Katherin A. Rogers, Anselm on Freedom, OUP 2008.
- Sandra Visser & Thomas Williams, Anselm (Great Medieval Thinkers series), OUP 2009.
- Benedicta Ward, Anselm of Canterbury: His Life and Legacy, SPCK 2009.

Articles
- Richard Sharpe, 'Anselm as Author: Publishing in the Late Eleventh Century' in Journal of Medieval Latin, 19 (2009) 1-87 available online as a pdf file.

Theses
- Samu Niskanen, The Letter Collections of Anselm of Canterbury, University of Helsinki 2009.

Reviews
- Ian Logan, 'Peter Boschung, From a Topical Point of View: Dialectic in Anselm of Canterbury's De Grammatico (Brill 2006)' in New Blackfriars, 90 (2009) 266-268.