Anselm's Ontological Argument Essay

The ontological argument proposed by Anselm, in Anselm’s Proslogion is a priori argument, meaning it does not start from a feature of the world but rather a definition of God. It seeks to move from a definition of god to the reality of god by reasoning. The first line in Anselms ontological argument is “the fool says in his heart there is no god”, from this Anselm can deduce that the fool has an understanding of what god is .The fool has to admit that god is that than which nothing greater can be conceived, as this is the definition of god and is understood by believers and non-believers. Anselm then goes on to say, it is one thing to exist in the mind alone and another to exist in the mind and reality, for example a piece of art can exist in an artist’s mind but it is not until they paint it that it exists in the mind and reality. Anselm views God as ‘that than which none greater can be conceived’. From this definition we can say that god exists in the mind as the greatest conceivable
Some also say you can’t move the word from definition to existence, for example a unicorn is a horse with a horn, so therefore a unicorn must exist, this is a priori deductive argument, meaning it is not a feature of the world but starts from a definition of god and takes place irrespective of existence. Gaunilo responds to Anselm ‘on behalf of the fool’, he rejects Anselms argument by drawing a parallel with a lost island, saying if we imagine the greatest possible island then it must exist somewhere, he is basically saying we can’t define things into existence. Anselm responds to this saying that his argument can only apply to God, as only god has all perfections.
Anselm’s second argument states that it is logically necessary for God to exist. Anselm states that god is the greatest conceivable being, so it would be less great to imagine him not existing than to imagine him existing.