Faith and Philosophy

Running Head: AQUINAS AND ANSELM’S ARGUMENT OF THE EXISTENCE OF
GOD
Aquinas and Anselm’s Argument of the Existence of God
Name of the Student
Name of the university
Author’s Note:

AQUINAS AND ANSELM’S ARGUMENT OF THE EXISTENCE OF GOD1
Table of Contents
Response to Question 1..............................................................................................................2
Response to Question (a).......................................................................................................2
Response to Question (b).......................................................................................................2
Response to Question (c).......................................................................................................2
Response to Question 2..............................................................................................................3
Response to Question (a).......................................................................................................3
Response to Question (b).......................................................................................................3
Response to Question 3..............................................................................................................4
Response to Question (a).......................................................................................................4
Response to Question (b).......................................................................................................4
References..................................................................................................................................5

AQUINAS AND ANSELM’S ARGUMENT OF THE EXISTENCE OF GOD2
Response to Question 1
Response to Question (a)
The main idea for explaining the existence of God, according to Thomas Aquinas, can
be seen from his work in Summa Theologiae, where he explains the existence of God in Five
possible ways, which is known as the Five Ways (Davis). The third way, which is based on
God as a necessary being, establishes the existence of anything beginning with a necessity of
it being created, which also implies that at a point of time, it was non-existent (Davis). It
proves that the existence of things is a proof of something greater, which made it necessary
for things to exist. On the other hand, St. Anselm proposes the existence of God as proof of
thinking in an individual of a being that is bigger than any other being in the world.
Nevertheless, the entity perceived in mind should be existing in reality, for there is a
probability that a being higher than any in perception might exist in reality. Hence, God
exists in mind, as well as in reality.
Response to Question (b)
Aquinas’s objection to Anselm’s argument is based on the ontological argument of
the definition. The first one being the fact that Anselm’s argument was based on the
perception of God in mind, which can only be related to each individual who has the same
concept of God. It also depends on the fact that different individuals sharing the perception
does not share the same notion of definition (Rushby). Another objection is the
ambiguousness of the concept of being which has not been specified and tends to differ from
individual to individual because everyone’s perception of the being greater than any imagined
will be different.