3. So something than which nothing greater can be thought cannot be
Anselm and the ontological argument
We can think of something existing which cannot be thought not to exist.
Such a thing would be greater than something which can be thought not to exist.
So something than which nothing greater can be thought cannot be something which can be thought not to exist.
So something than which nothing greater can be thought cannot be thought not to exist.
Or, in Anselm's words:
For something can be thought to exist that cannot be thought not to exist, and this is greater than that which can be thought not to exist. Hence, if that than which a greater cannot be thought can be thought not to exist, then that than which a greater cannot be thought is not the same as that than which a greater cannot be thought, which is absurd. Something than which a greater cannot be thought exists so truly then, that it cannot be even thought not to exist. anselm and gaunilo Many have thought that the arguments of Proslogion 2 and 3 are bad ones. Gaunilo is a case in point. According to him, Anselm is wrong, because (a) we should not think of God as being in the mind or understanding, and (b) Anselm's case for God's existence entails unbelievable consequences.
Gaunilo challenges the claim that that than which nothing greater can be thought is in the understanding by insisting on the incomprehensibility of something than which nothing greater can be thought.
His basic point is: we do not understand what God (or that than which nothing greater can be thought) is, so God (or that than which nothing greater can be thought) is not in the understanding. He writes:
I can so little think of or entertain in my mind this being (that which is greater than all those others that are able to be thought of, and which it is said [i.e. by Anselm] can be none other than God Himself) in terms of an object known to me either by species or genus, as I can think of God
Himself . . . For neither do I know the reality itself, nor can I form an idea from some other things like it since, as you [i.e. Anselm] say yourself, it is such that nothing could be like it.14
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