Anselm of Canterbury
1033-1109 · Scholasticism · Prominent
Anselm was archbishop of Canterbury in the eleventh century, and he thought he had proved God in a few lines. Define God as the being than which nothing greater can be thought. A God who exists only in your head would be less than one who also exists in fact, so God has to exist outside your head too. Anselm took that as settled. Philosophers have been taking the argument apart and rebuilding it ever since.
Signature
The position Anselm is most identified with in the Profiler:
- Universals
- strongly leans Realism
- Authority
- Divine Revelation / Sacred Tradition
Positions on the 15 axes the sources answer
- Natural Processes
- strongly leans Purposeful (100 on a 0–100 scale from Mechanistic to Purposeful)
- Society
- leans Collectivism (25 on a 0–100 scale from Collectivism to Individualism)
- The Divine
- leans Describable (14 on a 0–100 scale from Describable to Indescribable)
- Beauty
- strongly leans Objective (100 on a 0–100 scale from Subjective to Objective)
- Universals
- strongly leans Realism (5 on a 0–100 scale from Realism to Nominalism)
- Identity
- leans Unchanging (15 on a 0–100 scale from Unchanging to Changing)
- Meaning
- strongly leans Inherent (100 on a 0–100 scale from Constructed to Inherent)
- Order
- leans Vertical (19 on a 0–100 scale from Vertical to Horizontal)
- Nature of Reality
- leans Unity (29 on a 0–100 scale from Unity to Multiplicity)
- Ground of Being
- strongly leans Transcendence (100 on a 0–100 scale from Immanence to Transcendence)
- Truth
- strongly leans Objective (100 on a 0–100 scale from Subjective to Objective)
- Opposition
- strongly leans Concurrence (100 on a 0–100 scale from Sublation to Concurrence)
- Nature
- leans Harmony (81 on a 0–100 scale from Mastery to Harmony)
- Ethics
- strongly leans Means (96 on a 0–100 scale from Ends to Means)
- Conviction
- leans Certain (75 on a 0–100 scale from Uncertain to Certain)
5 of 20 axes are left blank: the sources do not answer them, or Anselm refused the framing. Nothing is imputed; a blank is not a middling score.
Foundational questions
- Theology
- Trinitarian Monotheism
What is your position on the existence and nature of God or gods? - Highest Good
- Union with God
What is the highest good? - Good and Evil
- Good Real, Evil Privative
What is the fundamental nature of good and evil? - End of Things
- Division of Good and Evil
What is the ultimate end of all things? - Knowledge
- Grounded in God / Receptive Intellect
What is the ultimate foundation of knowledge? - Ethics Basis
- Divine Command / Natural Law
What is the ultimate basis of ethics? - Agency
- Synergism
What is the nature of human agency and freedom? - Beginning of Things
- Creation ex Nihilo
What is the origin of reality? - Time
- Eschatological
What is the fundamental shape of time? - Authority
- Divine Revelation / Sacred Tradition
What is the legitimate source of authority? - Language
- Logos
What is the fundamental nature of language? - Paradox
- Limit / Apophatic Pointer
What is the status of paradox? - Death
- Ascent of the Soul / Judgement
What happens at death? - Human Nature
- Imago Dei / Redeemably Corrupted
What is human nature? - Primary Bond
- The Divine
What is your primary bond and loyalty?