1. If some F-thing is superior to every not-F thing, do not say
Anselm's perfect-being theology
and other things, on his own terms he must come up with none. On his terms only words can be in any way common to God and other things: only "names" can transfer to describe the perfect being. But these "names" will not transfer in their ordinary senses (Mon. 65).
For descriptions usually express attributes – calling something a dog expresses its having the attribute of being a dog. And descriptions cannot both apply to Anselm's God and express the attributes they usually do, for God does not have those attributes. Purely intrinsic descriptions do truly apply to God – He has some intrinsic character.
But it is not clear that any intrinsic descriptions we command apply to Him in any sense we grasp, since the attributes that these descriptions express elsewhere are ones God does not have. This threatens to leave the perfect-being project pointless: why apply words to God if we do not have any idea what they say when so used? Anselm recognizes the problem (Mon. 65). His reply is that we can at best draw conclusions about God based on what is like Him, and say about Him things which are true, but not in the senses in which we understand them (Mon. 65). the perfect-being rules Monologion 15 develops four ways to fill out the concept of a perfect being – four rules to follow for selecting descriptions to apply to it.
Two of the rules are that God must not at all be said to be any of those things to which something which is not what they are is superior, and . . . must be said to be any of those things to which whatever is not what they are is inferior.4
Suppose that something that is F is superior to anything that is not F.
Then if God is not F, something is superior to God. But God (as the supreme good) is better than any other existing thing. Thus the negative rule:
1. If some F-thing is superior to every not-F thing, do not say that God is not F.
Further, God is superior to whatever is not God. If some F-thing is superior to anything that is not F, God can be superior to everything other than Himself only if He is an F-thing. And so the positive rule:
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