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Philosophy of Religion : Philosophy of Religion Part 2b: Hegel on Anselm
1. The Ontological argument : 1. The Ontological argument Hegel on Anselm
The argument : The argument “I It is one thing to say that a thing is in the understanding, and quite another to perceive that it exists. Even an ignorant person (insipiens) will thus be quite convinced that in thought there is something beyond which nothing greater can be thought; for when he hears this he understands it, and everything that is understood is in the understanding.
But that beyond which nothing greater can be thought cannot certainly be in the understanding alone.
For if it is accepted as in thought alone, we may go on farther to accept it as existent; that, however, is something greater “than what is merely thought.
Thus were that beyond which nothing greater can be thought merely in the understanding, that beyond which nothing greater can be thought would be something beyond which something greater can be thought.
But that is truly impossible; there thus without doubt exists both in the understanding and in reality something beyond which nothing greater can be thought.”
2. Anselm in history : 2. Anselm in history Hegel on Anselm
Classical and medeaval : Classical and medeaval It is different from what we find and read of amongst the ancients. For it was said that God is absolute thought as objective; for because things in the world are contingent, they are not the truth in and for itself — but this is found in the infinite.
Being and thought : Being and thought Later, on the other hand, the opposition between thought itself and Being began to appear with Anselm. It is noteworthy that only now for the first time through the Middle Ages and in Christianity, the universal Notion and Being, as it is to ordinary conception, became established, in this pure abstraction as these infinite extremes; and thus the highest law has come to consciousness.
3. interpretation : 3. interpretation Hegel on Anselm
Opposition in consciousness : Opposition in consciousness But we reach our profoundest depths in bringing the highest opposition into consciousness. Only no advance was made beyond the division as such, although Anselm also tried to find the connection between the sides. But while hitherto God appeared as the absolute existent, and the universal was attributed to Him as predicate, an opposite order begins with Anselm — Being becomes predicate, and the absolute Idea is first of all established as the subject, but the subject of thought.
Slide 10 : Thus if the existence of God is once abandoned as the first hypothesis, and established as a result of thought, self-consciousness is on the way to turn back Within itself. Then we have the question coming in, Does God exist? while on the other side the question of most importance was, What is God?
Is subjective thought transcended? : Is subjective thought transcended? The highest conception cannot be iii the understanding alone; it is essential that it should exist. Thus it is made clear that Being is in a superficial way subsumed under the universal of reality, that to this extent Being does not enter into opposition with the Notion. That is quite right; only the transition is not demonstrated — that the subjective understanding abrogates itself. This, however, is just the question which gives the whole interest to the matter. When reality or completion is expressed in such a way that it is not yet posited as existent, it is something thought, and rather opposed to Being than that this is subsumed under it.
Being versus thought : Being versus thought This opposition between Being and thought is the starting point in philosophy, the absolute that contains the two opposites within itself — a conception, according to Spinoza, which involves its existence likewise.
Anselms formal reasoning : Anselms formal reasoning Of Anselm it is however to be remarked that the formal logical mode of the understanding, the process of scholastic reasoning is to be found in him , the content indeed is right, but the form faulty.
The “Highest” : The “Highest” For in the first place the expression “the thought of a Highest” is assumed as the prius.
Two sorts of thoughts : Two sorts of thoughts Secondly, there are two sorts of Objects of thought — one that is and another that is not; the object that is only thought and does not exist, is as imperfect as that which only is without being thought.
“Highest”as formal : “Highest”as formal The third point is that what is highest must likewise exist. But what is highest, the standard to which all else must conform, must be no mere hypothesis, as we find it represented in the conception of a highest acme of perfection, as a content which is thought and likewise is. This very content, the unity of Being and thought, is thus indeed the true content; but because Anselm has it before him only in the form of the understanding, the opposites are identical and conformable to unity in a third determination only — the Highest — which, in as far as it is regulative, is outside of them.
Structure of the argument : Structure of the argument In this it is involved that we should first of all have subjective thought, and then distinguished from that, Being. We allow that if we think a content (and it is apparently indifferent whether this is God or any other), it may be the case that this content does not exist.
The assertion “Something that is thought does not exist” is now subsumed under the above standard and is not conformable to it. We grant that the truth is that which is not merely thought but which likewise is. But of this opposition nothing here is said. Undoubtedly God would be imperfect, if He were merely thought and did not also have the determination of Being. But in relation to God we must not take thought as merely subjective.; thought here signifies the absolute, pure thought, and thus we must ascribe to Him the quality of Being. On the other hand if God were merely Being, if He were not conscious of Himself as self-consciousness, He would not be Spirit, a thought that thinks itself.
4. Conclusion : 4. Conclusion Hegel on Anselm
Conclusion : Conclusion But from asking about the existence of God, from making his objective mode a predicate and thus knowing, that God is Idea, to pass to making the absolute existence I=I, thinking self-consciousness, not as predicate and in such a way that each thinking I is the moment of this self-consciousness — is still a long stride.