Description
Book SynopsisSome commentators claim that Anselm's writings contain a second independent modal ontological argument for God's existence. A. D. Smith contends that although there is a second a priori argument in Anselm, it is not the modal argument. This other argument bears a striking resemblance to one that Duns Scotus would later employ.
Trade ReviewA. D. Smith’s
Anselm’s Other Argument offers by far the best treatment of the relevant parts of the
Proslogion known to me. His treatments of complex philosophical and exegetical questions—particularly Anselm’s understanding of modal notions and their relation to conceivability—seem exactly right. Smith is fully in command of both the material in Anselm and of all of the modern systems of modal logic required to show what Anselm is and is not committed to. Anyone interested in medieval theology, and many people interested in modal logic, would find things of value here. -- Richard Cross, University of Notre Dame
