Proslogion
- Language:
- English
- Translation:
- Sidney Norton Deane
- Status:
- Complete work
- Authorship:
- Written by the author
- Condition of the text:
- Clean text
- Extent:
- ~87,800 words · 417 passages
Cite this work
- APAAnselm of Canterbury. (n.d.). Proslogion. SigPhi. https://sigphiai.com/en/works/anselm-of-canterbury/proslogium-monologium-and-cur-deus-homo-deane
- MLAAnselm of Canterbury. "Proslogion." SigPhi, https://sigphiai.com/en/works/anselm-of-canterbury/proslogium-monologium-and-cur-deus-homo-deane.
- ChicagoAnselm of Canterbury. Proslogion. SigPhi. https://sigphiai.com/en/works/anselm-of-canterbury/proslogium-monologium-and-cur-deus-homo-deane.
What it is about
Anselm's three principal writings in one volume: the 'Monologion', the 'Proslogion' and the 'Cur Deus homo'.
Context and history
The 'Monologion' proves the existence of God from the degrees of goodness and of being found in the world, and does so through a long chain of arguments. The 'Proslogion' looks for the single argument that needs nothing from the world, and finds it: that than which nothing greater can be thought cannot exist in the understanding alone, for then something greater could be thought. That proof, which Kant named ontological, has been refuted and revived so often that the list of those who have argued about it is very nearly the history of philosophy. The 'Cur Deus homo' asks why God became man, and answers with the theory of satisfaction: sin incurs a debt which only man owes and only God can pay. The volume also contains the monk Gaunilo's reply to the 'Proslogion' and Anselm's rejoinder, which is where one sees best what he meant.
Editorial context, not a citable source: unlike the passages of the work itself, these statements cannot be checked against the corpus.
In this brief work the author aims at proving in a single argument the existence of God, and whatsoever we believe of God. — The difficulty of the task. — The author writes in the person of one who contemplates God, and seeks to understand what he believes. To this work he had given this title : Faith Seeking Understanding. He finally named it Proslogium, — that is, A Discourse. After I had published, at the solicitous entreaties of certain brethren, a brief work (the Monologiutii) as an example of meditation on the grounds of faith, in the person of one who investigates, in a course of silent reasoning with himself, matters of which he is ignorant ; considering that this book was knit together by the linking of many arguments, I began to ask myself whether there might be found a single argument which would require no other for its proof than itself alone ; and alone would suffice to demonstrate that God truly exists, and that there is a supreme good requiring nothing else, which all other things require for their existence and well-being ; and whatever we believe regarding the divine Being. Although I often and earnestly directed my thought to this end, and at some times that which I sought ANSKLM. v ust within my roach, while again it ,.u! :i.y mental vision, at last in despair I .v* .-j .isc. as if from the search for a thing .'. -.^-l L»c found. But when I wished to ex- ..:o^ht altogether, lest, by busying my ^ : v:rpose, it should keep me from other i \v;i:ch I might be successful; then more ..v^h I was unwilling and shunned it, it .■;cc itself upon me, with a kind of impor- . ^uo o.iy. when I was exceedingly wearied ;, .;s importunity, in the very conflict of :.>, :>e proof of which I had despaired .•., >o ::»at I eagerly embraced the thoughts .» >w»e:*uously repelling. lr% . : a out ore, that what I rejoiced to have ... . .: :v.t in writing, be welcome to some . . *..« \e».y matter, and o