Proslogion

Anselm of Canterbury, Proslogium (Discourse on the Existence of God)

Anselm, archbishop of Canterbury

“Faith seeking understanding.” He nearly called it that, and it is the better title.

Catch rate: 52 / 255
Base research: 172
Stat total: 330

Base stats

Every stat is a checkable fact about the actual book, not a designer's mood. Bars are drawn against the highest value any book reaches.

Stamina62

Contend96

Defend78

Popularity94

Total330

Why these numbers

The game's own explanation, as a reader sees it in the backpack.

Stamina 62

Low. A few pages. Anselm had already written a long case and deliberately set it aside for one argument that stands on its own.

Contend 96

Very high. It aims at the fool of Psalm 14 and uses his own mind against him: to deny the idea of God, he must first hold it. Few books contend harder for their size.

Defend 78

Answered in Anselm’s own lifetime by Gaunilo, and argued over ever since. A book that has been under fire for nine hundred years and is still standing defends well.

Popularity 94

Almost every philosopher since has had to say something about this argument. It takes the floor instantly.

Cited for this book

Anselm’s own preface says what he was after: a single argument that would need nothing but itself for its proof. His answer to the mercy-and-justice puzzle in chapters 8–11 is the same method turned on a difficulty in his own doctrine rather than on an unbeliever — he presses where it looks like a contradiction instead of asserting past it.

Development

A book develops as it is read — the fragment becomes the work, the work becomes the corpus.

Monologion→
Lv 32

Proslogion

Moves learned

By levelling up. A book that develops keeps what it knew and learns the rest on its new schedule.

Lv	Move	Type	Cat.	Pwr	Acc	PP
1	Than Which Nothing Greater	Rationality	Argument	82	90%	5
1	Random Verse	Bible	Argument	10	100%	30
34	Chapter…	Bible	Scripture	—	—	12
36	Answer the Catholic	Ethics	Argument	52	100%	10
37	Affirm	—	Status	—	—	1
37	Compassionate and Passionless	Theology Proper	Argument	70	100%	15
39	Take Back the Island	Rationality	Argument	78	100%	10
41	Greater Than Can Be Conceived	Theology Proper	Argument	76	100%	10
50	Speak Latin	History	Status	—	100%	5

The quotes behind its moves

How to read these. In Scholar’s Dream, books argue with each other. Each thing a book can do in a debate is a move, and most moves carry a real quotation — the words the book puts on the table when it uses that move.

Strong against lists the opposing books and arguments a move was written to answer. Used against one of them, it hits much harder than usual: ×2 means twice the normal force, ×4 four times. It is the game’s way of saying: this is the sentence that answers that argument. Open an entry to read why.

“And indeed, we believe that thou art a being than which nothing greater can be conceived… But, at any rate, this very fool, when he hears of this being of which I speak… understands what he hears, and what he understands is in his understanding.”
Anselm, Proslogium 2 (trans. Sidney Norton Deane, 1903, public domain). (trimmed quote)public domain

Than Which Nothing Greater

RationalityArgument · power 82 · 90% accurate

In the gameAddressed to the fool of Psalm 14, and it uses his own understanding against him: to deny the idea, he must first hold it. Expensive, and it does not always land.

Strong against

×0.5In Behalf of the Foolan argument · why?

It slides off. Getting from the understanding to the world is the very step he is refusing.

“It was a fool against whom the argument of my Proslogium was directed. Seeing, however, that the author of these objections is by no means a fool, and is a Catholic, speaking in behalf of the fool, I think it sufficient that I answer the Catholic.”
Anselm, Apologetic, in Reply to Gaunilon’s Answer in Behalf of the Fool, opening (trans. Deane, 1903, public domain).public domain

Answer the Catholic

EthicsArgument · power 52 · 100% accurate

In the gameThe reply opens by promoting the man who attacked him. He wrote for a fool; a believer answered; so he will answer the believer. Very likely to take the force out of the foe’s Contend.

Strong against

×2In Behalf of the Foolan argument · why?

He is named correctly before he is answered, and the argument cools by several degrees.

“For in him we live, and move, and have our being. As some of your own poets have said.”
Acts 17:28 (WEB) — Paul at the Areopagus, quoting the Athenians’ own poets back to them.

Affirm

Status

In the gamePick the part of the opponent’s case that is true and affirm it. That point can no longer be used against you, and the opponent’s Defend falls sharply. It deals no damage. Affirm something false and you have only agreed with an error.

“How art thou compassionate, and, at the same time, passionless?”
Anselm, Proslogium 8 (trans. Deane, 1903, public domain).public domain

“But how dost thou spare the wicked, if thou art all just and supremely just? For how, being all just and supremely just, dost thou aught that is not just?”
Anselm, Proslogium 9 (trans. Deane, 1903, public domain).public domain

Compassionate and Passionless

Theology ProperArgument · power 70 · 100% accurate

In the gameAnselm turns on his own doctrine and presses where it seems to contradict itself, instead of asserting past the difficulty.

“Now I promise confidently that if any man shall devise anything existing either in reality or in concept alone (except that than which a greater be conceived) to which he can adapt the sequence of my reasoning, I will discover that thing, and will give him his lost island, not to be lost again.”
Anselm, Apologetic 3 (trans. Deane, 1903, public domain).public domain

Take Back the Island

RationalityArgument · power 78 · 100% accurate

In the gameThe parody is accepted and then handed back. Find anything else the argument fits, Anselm says, and I will go and fetch your island myself — because it fits exactly one thing, and that is why the parody fails.

Strong against

×2.5In Behalf of the Foolan argument · why?

The parody is handed straight back — and it fits nothing else.

“Therefore, O Lord, thou art not only that than which a greater cannot be conceived, but thou art a being greater than can be conceived.”
Anselm, Proslogium 15 (trans. Deane, 1903, public domain).public domain

Greater Than Can Be Conceived

Theology ProperArgument · power 76 · 100% accurate

In the gameThe argument turns and goes past its own conclusion: not merely the greatest thing thinkable, but greater than thinking reaches.

What answers it

The specific move or chapter of Scripture that cuts through this one, and why. The number is how much harder it hits than usual — ×4 is four times the normal force.

Faith Seeking Reason×2.5

Anselm opens the Proslogion with Augustine’s counsel: believe so that you may understand. His own words are “I believe in order to understand.”

Read it: That Than Which Nothing Greater

The passages the Scriptorium holds on screen, word for word from a public-domain translation. Written in Latin.

“And indeed, we believe that thou art a being than which nothing greater can be conceived… But, at any rate, this very fool, when he hears of this being of which I speak… understands what he hears, and what he understands is in his understanding.”
Anselm, Proslogium 2 (trans. Sidney Norton Deane, 1903, public domain). (trimmed quote)

“Therefore, O Lord, thou art not only that than which a greater cannot be conceived, but thou art a being greater than can be conceived.”
Anselm, Proslogium 15 (trans. Deane, 1903, public domain).

“How art thou compassionate, and, at the same time, passionless?”
Anselm, Proslogium 8 (trans. Deane, 1903, public domain).

“But how dost thou spare the wicked, if thou art all just and supremely just? For how, being all just and supremely just, dost thou aught that is not just?”
Anselm, Proslogium 9 (trans. Deane, 1903, public domain).

Notes

Anselm’s own preface says what he was after: a single argument that would need nothing but itself for its proof.

Chapters 8 to 11 turn the same method onto a difficulty in his own doctrine — how mercy and justice hold together in God — instead of onto an unbeliever. He presses where it looks like a contradiction rather than asserting past it.