Anselm's Ontological Theory

Anselm believed “the faith is basis of a good knowledge”. God transcends everything imaginable. So he exists outside of us, and out of this world, “There is God, because He is - God puts the idea of Him into the man’s at the birth”( Charlesworth 12).

Anselm appeared in the history of philosophy as the author of the so-called ontological proof of God's existence. A typical metaphysical line of reasoning became proof of the unity of space in ancient times, as it was based on a close sense perception of order and beauty, for medieval Christianity became more relevant evidence emanating not from sensuality, but from speculative understanding. The emphasis was made on pure thought, and so that it confirms the status of the current, so that the ultimate truth should unite each other. The combination of these principles required a careful analysis of the concept “God”, with reference to the legacy of Plato and Augustine. Augustine and Plato recognized the obvious discovery of God through the experience of self-consciousness. God is perfect authentic being, and the true essence of each subject is found in God. Being in dispute with Roscelin, Anselm clearly showed that all the subjects have their prototype in the divine thought and these prototypes - the word of God, God's inner monologue. In his treatise On Literacy he tried to connect a direct relationship not only between name and existence, but also between thought and being, recognizing the unity of the name, thought and being in Divine Word. Hegel has correctly pointed out that at the time when Anselm created, being became a predicate, and became the subject of the absolute idea of thinking. With such an installation we do no t need the question, "what is God" but "is there God".

What is to be said for the non-believer, those who have no prayer, no Divine

inspiration or Divine understanding, they have no preconceptions of a God who is greater than anything that could be thought. Therefore if we are to believe the opening statements from Anselm’s theory, without clarity and understanding from God, no God can exist, thus, giving no relevancy to the Anselm’s introduction of theory or his theory itself.

Anselm makes theological rationalism, believing that his duty was to understand as much as possible of that, in what he believed. This elevates the knowledge which in early Christianity has lost much of its value to the value of the implementation of direct commandments of Christ life. Anselm goes even further, trying to combine the logic and the sacraments. If he allows himself to set aside the authority of Scripture in Monologione, seeking to realize “what is God”, if he proves the existence of God in Proslogione, deduction of his existence is from the concept “about Him”, and  he proves logical necessity in the incarnation of God in Why God became a man, believing that God could save people only in such a way, and therefore God had no choice.

Anselm was convinced that there is mid-level between faith and direct vision of God and namely, understanding of faith with reason. Although, the mind is not able to grasp fully what is a matter of faith, but it can rationalize the necessity of faith, to prove the truth of dogma. That is why Anselm pays much attention to the logical proof of religious truth in his works, “God cannot be conceived not to exist. God is that, than which nothing greater can be conceived. That which can be conceived not to exist is not God” (Charlesworth 56).

So, the whole point of the theory is that Anselm argues that the mere pronouncing of the word "God" (of course, with a concomitant understanding) entails His existence. Anselm cites a "madman", i.e. unbeliever. We are calling God "therefore, that than which greater cannot be thought exists in though"(Charlesworth 123). And when the existence of this is denied, thinking was always just as existence. We need only to understand the phrase to prove the existence of God, "therefore, that than which greater cannot be thought exists in though" (Charlesworth 123). But we can and must think and understand what is being said. Ineffability of divine nature does not exempt the need to understand and express meaning in speech of ineffability. And the meaning of " therefore, that than which greater cannot be thought exists in though” encompasses such a great force that when somebody says that, it immediately vested existence in reality.

He believed that all "revealed truth” is available to the rational evidence. Dialectics is a kind of instrument of faith: the Christian faith, on the one hand, it makes assumptions of dialectical reasoning, and on the other - determines its final conclusions. An attempt to rationalize dogmas (creation of the world out of nothing, dogmas of the Holy Trinity, original sin, atonement of Jesus, etc.) was carried out by Anselm in the conceptual basis of philosophical "realism” (Poole 223).

Anselm of Canterbury also paid attention to ethical issues (e.g., free will and freedom of choice), offered his vision of the truth (the study of the referential, actual truth) based on the study of language and semantic search functionality of domestic laws ruling by the language.

Theory of God’s Language is comparable to "Logos" Plato "Verbum" Augustine in Anselm's (speech of God  is an exact image of the nature of things, accordingly, the person’s words are inaccurate and incomplete images of things). The position of "extreme realism" was repeatedly subjected to philosophical criticism from his contemporaries. However, the value of his teaching is determined, on the one hand, the rationalization of augustinity, and on the other - the development of a conceptual framework of scholastic philosophy.

Anselm sought to show the harmony of reason and faith - to some extent he succeeded, and later medieval scholasticism constantly returned to the analysis of their relationship. Anselm was able to give his ontological proof of a rationalist optimism, showing a self-worth thinking, an activity of the knowing subject - in short all the things without which we can not imagine the history of European culture.