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Volume 4, Number 2 (Spring 2007)
Augustine and Anselm on the Essence of Moral Responsibility
Montague Brown
Saint Anselm College
ABSTRACT
In the first chapter of the Monologion, Anselm claims we can know that God exists through reason alone, as well as through faith. He says that, although this can be done in many ways, he will present the way most easily understood. He then goes on to present an argument based on the degrees of goodness found in the things of our experience and how this diversity in the goodness of things suggests a highest good, which is God. This argument is essentially the same as the fourth way of Aquinas. In this paper, the focus will be on those other "ways" to which Anselm refers. My questions are two: what basis can be found within Anselm's writings for these other ways, and how do they compare to the famous five ways of Aquinas? |
