more on this theme | more from this text
Full Idea
If some mind could think of something better than thou, the creature would rise above the Creator and judge its Creator; but this is altogether absurd.
Gist of Idea
Conceiving a greater being than God leads to absurdity
Source
Anselm (Proslogion [1090], Ch 3)
Book Ref
'The Existence of God', ed/tr. Hick,John [Macmillan 1964], p.26
A Reaction
An error, revealing a certain desperation. If a greafer being could be conceived than the being so far imagined as God (a necessarily existing being), that being would BE God, by his own argument (and not some arrogant 'creature').
Related Idea
Idea 21243 An existing thing is even greater if its non-existence is inconceivable [Anselm]
| 4748 | Anselm of Canterbury identified truth with God [Anselm, by Engel] |
| 1420 | Anselm's first proof fails because existence isn't a real predicate, so it can't be a perfection [Malcolm on Anselm] |
| 21241 | Even the fool can hold 'a being than which none greater exists' in his understanding [Anselm] |
| 21242 | If that than which a greater cannot be thought actually exists, that is greater than the mere idea [Anselm] |
| 1421 | A perfection must be independent and unlimited, and the necessary existence of Anselm's second proof gives this [Malcolm on Anselm] |
| 21244 | Conceiving a greater being than God leads to absurdity [Anselm] |
| 21243 | An existing thing is even greater if its non-existence is inconceivable [Anselm] |
| 21245 | The word 'God' can be denied, but understanding shows God must exist [Anselm] |
| 21246 | Guanilo says a supremely fertile island must exist, just because we can conceive it [Anselm] |
| 21247 | Nonexistence is impossible for the greatest thinkable thing, which has no beginning or end [Anselm] |